Brothers' Angst
by Animation Universe 2005
Summary: Five new Whoville students deal with new school new life and an abusive stepfather. Will they have a friend to come to? Enjoy! For vampire1031! Hope yall enjoy!
1. The New Students

I have returned to making a new Horton fic. vampire1031, this is for you. Hope you like it, cuz the wait is over! Sorry about the title.

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Brother's Angst

by: Terrell James

Chapter 1: The New Students

In Whoville, it was a bright Friday morning and Jojo McDodd is walking on the way to Whoville High on his own, hoping that he'll have a good day there. He walks with his WhoPod and a song is played inside while he's walking on the way to school. A couple of minutes later, he got to the school and he walks around the hallways, removing his earphones and putting the WhoPod in his backpack. As he was walking, he spots Mike and Cody in the hallway lockers, right where Jojo's spot is.

Mike looked up and saw Jojo there. He smiled and said, "J-man! How's it going?"

Jojo looks at Mike and said, "Pretty good. Hey, Cody."

"Hey, Jojo! Our best buddy! How's it hanging?" asked Cody, with a smile.

"I'm fine, actually."

"So, did you hear?"

"About what?"

"We've got some new students here all the way from Whereville and they're all brothers."

"Brothers?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"How'd you know them?"

"We saw them sitting in the principal's office and they said that they just moved in." Mike said.

"We're not sure which period these guys are gonna be in, but as soon as we meet them in one of those periods, it'll be supercool." Cody said.

"Seems cool." Jojo said.

"So, what's the haps? Any new music on your WhoPod?"

"Well, I've just got this new one from Whereamore called, 'The Only Exception' and it's really cool to hear, when you actually here the lyrics."

"Can we hear it?"

"Sure."

Jojo zips open his backpack, takes out his WhoPod and plays the song while Mike puts one earphone on his ear and another one on Cody. They start to hear the song coming in.

_When I was young_

_I heard my daddy cry_

_and curse at the wind_

_He broke his own heart_

_and I watched_

_as he tried to reassemble it_

_And my mama swore_

_that she would never let herself forget_

_And that was the day that I promised_

_I'd never sing of love_

_if it does not exist_

_Darling, you are the only exception_

_You are the only exception_

_You are the only exception_

_You are the only exception_

Mike looks at Cody and said, "This is completely awesome!"

"What a great song!" Cody agreed.

"You like it?" asked Jojo.

"Loved it."

Then, they heard the bell ring and they knew that it's time to head over to girst period. Cody looked at Jojo and said, "Gotta head to my first class. Don't want another tardy slip again."

"Oh, yeah. Like last time." Mike said.

"Do not remind me."

"See you guys!" Jojo said.

"Laters, dude!" they both said.

Jojo heads to his first period class and sits down on his seat, just waiting to get this over it. Suddenly, Jojo comes across this new who, about this tall, 150 pounds, 15 years old, blue eyes, wearing a brown and blue T-shirt, with some dark blue jeans and his hair was a midnight black with the bangs covering his eye. The new who looked at Jojo and turns away for some reason.

Then, the teacher comes in and said, "Good morning, class. We'd like to get started on two things-first of all, please remember to learn that parent-teacher conference is next week, so don't be anxious to tell all your parents about it. And second, we have a new student here named...Jonah Mosley."

The teacher looked at the new who and asked, "Would you like to introduce us?"

Jonah sighed heavily and walked in the front of the class, cleared his throat and said, "Hi. My name's Jonah Mosley and I live with my stepdad with my five brothers. I'm kinda the oldest, so... I think that's it."

"So, how are you liking Whoville?"

"It's okay, I guess..."

Then, he spots a scratch on Jonah's elbow and asked, "What happened to your elbow?"

Jonah looks at his elbow and made up some crappy excuse for it and said, "Well one time, I was riding my skateboard and I didn't have any protection gear on and when I tried to do a trick...I fell out of my board and landed on the pavement, where the scratch on my elbow came in."

"Well, skateboards are kinda dangerous. Well, we're glad to have you here and welcome to Whoville High, Mr. Mosley."

"Thank you."

Jonah went back to his seat, in a row next to Jojo and didn't want anyone else to know that it wasn't really the skateboarding incident. Jojo could kinda see that this was something more than that. But, he decided to keep it to himself and not let it come to mind.

A couple of hours later, it was lunchtime. Jojo sat down on one table on his own, with his lunchbag by his side. He takes out some chips, cookies, a banana, grilled cheese sandwhich and a orange soda. All of a sudden, as soon as he starts eating, in comes Jonah standing next to him. He said, "You're Jojo McDodd, right?"

Jojo turns to him and said, "Yeah, why?"

"I'm Jonah."

"I know. You were in my class, right?"

"Yeah, of course."

"So, I heard about the skateboarding incident. That must be really painful, right?"

"Yeah, I learned my lesson-never get on a skateboard without safety equipment."

"That's true. I've never actually skated before."

"Hey, guys!"

Then, Jojo turns around and sees Mike, Cody and Marcus coming in with the new students from their classes. Jojo chuckled and said, "Hey, guys. How's it hanging?"

"Well, we thought we might introduce our new friends to you." Mike said.

Then, Cody looks at Jonah and said, "Isn't that one of the new kids?"

Mike turns around and sees that it is one of them and said, "Yeah, it is! What's up, man? I see you met Jojo."

"Yeah. This is Jonah. These are my best friends, Mike, Cody and Marcus." Jojo said.

"Hey."

"What's up, dude?"

"And I see you met my brothers, Sam, Cyrus, Hawk and Travis."

"Yeah, me and Hawk and Cyrus are in Bi-whology class, Sam shares the same period as Cody in Who-literature and Travis goes to second period with Marcus in Who-English. Guys, this is Jojo McDodd." Mike said.

"How are you guys?" asked Jojo.

"Pretty good, I guess." said Sam, 14 years old, brown eyes, thick black hair, brown and grey fur, wears a black T-shirt and dark blue jeans and a little taller.

"So, how old are you guys?" Marcus.

"Well, me, Cyrus and Hawk are 15 and Sam and Travis are 14." Jonah said.

"So, you guys are..."

"Five twins. The three of us are triplets and the other two are twins."

"Nice."

"I have a feeling this is gonna be cool."

"I hope you're right."

"Do you have any friends in Whereville?" asked Cody.

"Well, we're kinda loners, so we don't make any friends often." Cyrus said, 15 years old, light dark hair, grey and black fur, wears a blue T-shirt, khaki pants and a necklace that says 'Outcasts' in it.

"So we only have each other." Sam said.

"What's the reason?"

"Well, we don't want to give this much away, because we all have the same scars as we have." Travis said, 14 years old, green eyes, midnight black hair, brown and black striped fur, wearing a white and blue T-shirt and blue jeans.

"Scars?"

"Sort of."

They all end up showing parts of their scars, bruises and cuts on their elbows, knee, ankle, leg and arm and most of those weren't considered 'accidents'. Jojo asked, "What happened to you guys?"

"It's no big deal. We get that a lot, because we don't want to tell what really happened, so we kept it to ourselves." Hawk said, 15 years old, blue eyes, black hair, grey and brown striped fur, wearing a light green T-shirt and khaki pants.

"Well, it's okay if you don't tell us." Marcus said.

"Okay, sure."

"How do you like Whoville?" asked Cody.

"I think it's pretty cool there."

"You have any parents?"

"Nah, our dad died when we were young and my mom left us before we moved here five months ago, so we're left with our stepdad." Travis said.

"How is that working for you?" asked Jojo.

"Not so good, cause he can get angry easily at us when something bad happens to him and over the little things."

"So, in other words-"

"He's kind of an angry dude."

"Sounds serious."

"Yep."

"You could meet my dad. He's not an angry guy, but sometimes he can be weird and somewhat...unusual."

"Like how unusual?"

"He's nothing like a normal father, but he tries to be."

"His dad's the mayor of Whoville." Mike said.

"Your dad's the mayor?"

"Yeah, kinda crazy, right?"

"Not even sure. Haven't even met him yet."

"You will soon." Jojo said.

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How cool is this story? BTW, the song is 'The Only Exception' from Paramore. This will only get interesting! Stay tuned!


	2. Painful Scars

This next chapter will become more dramatic than ever.

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Chapter 2: Painful Scars

It was after school, and Jojo, Marcus, Cody and Mike went along with his new friends to the park to sort of get to know each other a little bit. They started playing basketball and most of them were kinda good at it. Jojo asked, "So, what do you guys like to do?"

"Honestly, when I'm at home, I like to sort of play Who-Guitar, write songs, watch a few movies, write some poetry, listen to music and often times, just go out and play sports. I'm not the best athletic person, but I do it just for fun." Jonah said.

"I like to write poetry and songs. Say if I'm mad, upset or just sad about something and I want to let it all out, I turn in my notebook and let the words come loose and I would feel better after that." Cyrus said.

"I like listening to music as well and sometimes, I would take my guitar and do my own thing into it, record it in a microphone near the computer and also let my version of every song be heard. And often times, I would send some videos of me singing on WhoTube." Hawk said.

"I pretty much play sports, just for fun and also write poetry and songs as well." Sam said.

"And I like to write music and songs in which ways people can relate to if there's something going on in my life and just let it out instead of bottling it all in. And I like to go outside to get away from stuff that's completely personal and just be free for once. I like to play video and watch movies and play guitar and stuff like that." Travis said.

"Well, Jojo writes songs as well and sings it everytime." Cody said.

"You do?" asked Jonah.

"Yeah, it's kinda like my escapism to get away from my dad and tell him how I really feel about him and pressuring me to be mayor of Whoville." Jojo said.

"Your dad's pressuring you?"

"Yeah, I don't want to be mayor of Whoville, but if I do tell him, I might end up disappointing him."

"Aren't you liable to risk it anyway?"

"Maybe, but not really. He just doesn't really understand what I want to do in my life."

"I feel the same way with my stepdad. He thinks I can only do sports, but my main passion is music. I tell him that I play sports for fun, but he thinks it's all competition and seriousness and all that crap. If I do tell him..."

Jonah paused for a sec and Jojo wanted to know what and asked, "What will happen?"

Jonah didn't say anything, so he sighed and said, "Well, I'll just say I don't want him disappointed in me and disown me."

Jojo didn't want to believe that, but he's liable to take his word for it and said, only, "Okay, then."

They dribbled the ball around and dunked it in the basket. Cody shouts and said, "Dude, how'd you get so good at it?"

"This is the second thing to take out frustration." Hawk said.

"As well as us." Jonah said.

"You're kidding. When I want to get away from my dad, I sneak out to the old observatory. It's pretty much my haven when I want to be alone or if I want to make my own instruments." Jojo said.

"You make your own instruments?" asked Sam.

"Yep."

"That's cool. Maybe I can see it sometime."

"You should."

Mike throws the ball in the air and slams in the net and holds on to the basket. He looked down and said, "Nothing but net."

"Dude, come on. Quit showing off!" Cody said.

"Whatever!"

Mike lets go and lands back on the ground with his feet and continued playing. All of a sudden, Jonah's watch beeped and it's 3:25 and said, "Hey, guys. We're about to head home."

"Really?" asked Marcus.

"Yeah, we have to get here before our stepdad comes. He basically blows his top when we're somewhere else after school." Sam said.

"Well, what's the big deal about that?" asked Cody.

"Yeah, you have after-school activities and all that. So, you're pretty much liable to stay out later than that." Mike said.

"Yeah, well, you know. My stepdad is not the type of person that can even let us do extraciricullar activities. Anyways, it's really great seeing you guys and meeting you here. Hopefully, you'll show us around here." Travis said.

"Sure, we will."

"See you guys in school tomorrow."

The boys walked out of the park and continued playing. Mike said, "They seem like cool guys."

"Yeah, I know. What do you think, Jojo?" asked Marcus.

Jojo looked at them walking off and Marcus called his name again and he turned around and said, "Yeah, they're cool."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Hey, are you boys playing basketball without us?" asked Misty.

Then, they turned around and saw Misty and Caitlyn coming in the basketball court, with their -face on. Cody chuckled and said, "Right. Like you s could really play basketball."

"Oh, so you think s can't play?"

"That sums it up."

"We'll see about that!" Caitlyn said.

Marcus passed the ball to the s, then Caitlyn dribbles the ball around and the boys try to block her way, but she threw the ball in the air, walked through their knees, caught it and then, slammed the ball down to the basket and held on to the court. Misty cheered for Caitlyn and she said, "Good work!"

"Thanks!" Caitlyn giggled.

All the boys were in a state of shock and all Marcus could say is, "Un-be-lievable."

"And you would believe a can shoot hoops."

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And for the big dramatic moment that will turn violent...

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Later on, Jonah, Travis, Sam, Cyrus and Hawk went back home and it's mostly empty. Then, they headed towards their rooms hoping that their stepdad won't take out his anger out on the boys. All five of them did their homework for several minutes and most of them were done quicker than the others. All of a sudden, the door slammed open in the living room and a loud voice screamed out like a thousand screams.

"BOYS!"

They can recognize that voice from anywhere and it's their stepdad. They all quietly opened the doors and walked downstairs to the living room, where their stepdad comes in, looking ticked off.

"Y-you wanted s-something, Paul?" asked Jonah, fearfully.

"How long where you all here?" asked Paul?

"We just got here." Travis answered, timidly.

"'We just got here.' Why are you shaking like a leaf towards me? You better show some respect around here!"

"We do show some respect for you." Jonah said, calmly.

Paul grew more ticked off and asked, "Are you smart-mouthing me?"

"No sir."

"Don't lie to me, boy."

"He's telling the truth, I swear." Hawk said, fearfully.

"SUCK IT UP! Be men, for crying out loud!" Paul shouted.

"We're just kids." Sam said, ly.

That drove Paul to his breaking point and it comes a point where the boys are going to disperse to their rooms and Paul chased them and already they can tell that they locked the doors to their rooms. Paul burst in the door and saw Jonah looking scared and shaking uncontrollably. He grabbed Jonah by the arm and punched him in the eye and dragged him across the hallway and threw him down the ground from the stairs and then, he jumped out of the stairs and landed on his arm. Jonah screamed loudly and Paul said, "SHUT UP!"

He grabbed Jonah and pushed him to the wall, very hard. This made the others from upstairs feeling very scared for Jonah. He grabbed Jonah's face and said, "You better show some respect for me, understand?"

"I do show respect for you." he said, silently.

Paul dragged him and pushed him to another wall and then slapped him in the face and also beat him down with a frying pan. Then, Paul was done with Jonah and sees the others in fear and comes upstairs and beats down the rest of them and threw all of them in the walls, scratched him with his fingers, kicked them hard and bashed their heads and also threw them down from the stairs and all of them ended up with scars, bruises, beatings and scratches.

Paul looked at them all and said, "You five despise me. You all need to learn that I am in charge of this household and if you think you're against me, you're wrong."

Travis asked, "What makes you think that?"

"Are you questioning me?"

"No, I'm just asking." he answered, fearfully.

Paul comes back down the stairs and punches Travis' eye real hard and it stings. Paul answered, "That's your answer."

"We're not against you...sorta." Sam said.

"Shut up, stupid! You know something? All of you are useless in life! Why do I ever put up with you all?"

Paul storms off in his room and slammed the door to cool off for a bit. All of them are in total fear of his stepdad and they walked back to their rooms, half-injured and beaten. Jonah felt totally depressed and laid down on his bed and started crying softly. The door opens and it's Travis coming in, seeing Jonah break down in tears.

Jonah turns around and sees Travis on the side of the bed, with tears coming out his face as well. He wiped his eyes for him and gives him a hug and they're both crying softly.

Travis lets go for a second and walks out of his room, leaving Jonah alone, with his guitar and starts strumming a song and humming along with the melody with tears coming out from his eyes. He can tell that he's feels like they're all suffering the abuse because of their stepdad. The only challenge is how long they're gonna pull this brave face with their new friends?

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How brutal is that? Stay tuned for more of this amazing story!


	3. Discovering

The real deal is about to come out...

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Chapter 3: Discovering

The next day comes along and Jojo makes his way to school, when he sees Cyrus, Jonah, Sam, Hawk and Travis walking on the other side of the sidewalk. He turns to them and said, "Hey!"

They looked up and saw Jojo there and Jonah said, "Hey, Jojo. How goes it?"

"Pretty good."

They decide to walk to school with him around and Jojo asked, "So, how's it going? Ready for a second day of school?"

"As ready as we'll ever be." Travis said.

Then, Mike, Marcus and Cody came by with their skateboards on the other side of the sidewalk and seeing Jojo caught their attention and they rode their boards to where they're at and Cody asked, "How goes it, guys?"

"Hey, what's up?" asked Jonah.

"I wish you guys would've stayed longer. We got our kicked by some s at basketball, but mostly just Mike, Cody and Marcus." Jojo said.

"I did NOT realize that Caitlyn and Misty play so good! They like creamed us." Cody said.

"That's because you say that s don't play basketball."

"I was just making a point."

"Yeah, a point that definitely got to the point where you actually got creamed at basketball by a ." Mike said.

"Oh, sure. Make jokes at your brother."

Mike laughed at Cody and sighed happily and told him, "Sorry, dude. I just think it's funny that Cailtyn creamed you."

"Wait, Caitlyn actually beat you at basketball?" asked Jojo.

"Don't rub it in, please."

"I'm not. I'm just asking."

"Who's Caitlyn?" asked Travis.

"She's a friend of ours, but mostly Jojo's crush." Marcus said.

Jojo rolled his eyes and said, "She's just a friend."

"Oh, sure she is. I've heard it all before. Admit it, Jojo. You like her."

"Just a little."

"I've never actually had a crush before." Jonah said.

"Why not?" asked Marcus.

"Well, some s don't like hanging around guys who are emo and goth. I get called that most of the time in our old school and so do us, because they think we look the part."

"Oh, trust me. I've been there. It's all because my dad put so much pressure on me, thinking that I can become mayor, when I know I don't. Again, he just doesn't understand that I don't want to take part of it."

All of a sudden, Cody sees a black eye in Jonah and asked, "What happened to your eye?"

Jonah looked at Cody and noticed that he saw his black eye, because of his fight with his stepfather and didn't want to mention it, so he said, "As soon as we came home, some bullies from here wanted me to join a fight with them, and I told them 'no' and then...they beat me down and punched my eye out."

"Where they big?" asked Jojo.

"Huge."

"Then, they saw us and had us cornered and start beating us too." Sam said.

Then, Jojo noticed the cuts and scars on all five of them and realize that it wasn't the bullies' doing that did it. He suspected that it was something else deeper. Marcus stared at Cody and asked, "What's up with you?"

Then, he turned to Marcus and answered, "Nothing. Just wondering that if the bullies really did to them."

"What do you mean? Of course they did it to us." Jonah said.

He didn't want to ask personal questions to any five of them, so the best thing he could do is just keep it to himself and said only, "Okay, I believe you."

Jonah breathed a heavy sigh of relief and said, "Thanks, Jojo. You're a good friend, even though I've know you for a day."

Jojo chuckles and said, "No problem."

As soon as they got to the school, they saw Misty and Caitlyn standing in the steps and Misty said, "Well, if it isn't the big B-ball boys, minus Jojo."

"Oh, come on. If you really think you're gonna beat us yesterday, we would beat you any day of the week." Cody said.

"Admit it. Me and Caitlyn are better than you guys."

"You s think you're so good at it, but you're lying through your teeth."

Caitlyn scoffed and said, "Actually, you're the one that's lying through your teeth because I beat you and Mikey fair and square."

Marcus gasped, then told Jojo, "That's a serious one, dude."

Misty kept her eye on the new guys and asked, "Who are they?"

"Well, these are our new friends, Sam, Jonah, Hawk, Cyrus and Travis. They're new here from Whereville." Jojo said.

Misty got very familiar with one of the boys and asked, "You're on my Who-story class, right?"

Hawk chuckled and said, "That's me, actually."

"Oh, yeah. You're the guy I met in the hallway before the class started. Nice seeing you again."

"You too..."

"Misty."

"Misty, gotcha."

"And this is my best friend, Caitlyn."

"Hi." Caitlyn said.

"Hi." Hawk answered, shyly.

"Hawk is very shy around new people, especially s." Travis said.

"Really?"

"All of us are kinda shy around new people."

"How so?"

"Well...we're not sure if they want us to be friends with us."

"How do you know they're not sure?"

"We can tell by the way they look at us, like we're from another planet and also back from where we live, we've been called 'emo band' and separately, we've been called 'emo', 'shrimp', 'sissy emo dude' and 'punk goth maggots'."

"Jojo gets called 'emo' several times before we met him." Mike said.

"Except the last part." Jojo said.

Caitlyn noticed a little scar on Travis' arm and asked, "Where'd you get that scar on your arm?"

Travis looked at her and then, looked at it and said, "Fell down out a tree a few weeks ago."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I was climbing this tree and then, I got too high and I fell down on one of the branches and fell down on the ground."

"Wow, that must hurt."

"It definitely does."

"I think we should head to class."

"Good thinking."

All but Jojo walked to the inside of the school and Jojo was thinking that something else might've happened there and thought that all five of them were hiding something that they're not telling him directly to his face. He decided to just let it go and worry about it and he walked inside the school and sort of keep his mind away from it.

Later after school, Jojo walked himself home from school when he receives a text message on his Who-phone and the text was from Jonah. He reads, 'Where do you live?'

He texted back said, 'By that blue house where it says 'McDodd' on the front.'

He sent the message and kept walking until 5 seconds later, he got another message from Jonah and said, 'We're on our way there.'

It was kinda weird that Jonah and his brothers are actually coming over to his place, but it seems as though they want to see where Jojo lives. So he kept walking until he reached the house and went inside there. He walked upstairs and went into his room, flopped on the bed, got a piece of paper and started drawing a new musical instrument that he would actually build in the observatory. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang and Jojo went out of his room, walked downstairs and opened it and to his surprise, it was Jonah and his brothers.

"Hey. I got your message."

"Thanks for replying to us."

"So, why did you want to come here, anyway?"

"We just moved in and we thought that since meeting you, we could see where you live."

"Can we come in?" asked Sam.

"Sure, why not."

They let themselves in and looked around the place and what caught their eyes were the family pictures. Sam asked, "Hey, Jojo. What's with all the pictures?"

Jojo scoffs and and said, "These are some of the pictures from our family heritage. Ironically, all of them were mayor of Whoville, both men and women of our kind. Kinda scary, but true. And he's thinking that I can actually be in 'one of the greats'. I'd rather be in music than be one of the greats."

"So, your dad's the mayor of Whoville, right?"

"Yep."

"Cool."

"Where's your room?" asked Travis.

"Upstairs. Follow me."

The boys followed Jojo to his room and his room was rather dark, but he turned the light on and everyone was taken aback from what it looks like. Cyrus chuckled and said, "Wow, your room is cool."

"Yeah, it is."

Jonah looked at all the pictures and posters around the walls and sees that those are emo-punk bands and he sees some CD's there and asked, "You like music, right?"

"Yeah, I do."

"We like this type of music too, only Travis is more of a heavy metal person."

"On some occasions. I like pop-rock and sometimes even punk rock and ballads."

"Sam and I are into punk rock, emo and alternative rock as well. Hawk is pretty much into the bubblegum pop stuff." Jonah said.

"I quit listening to it like several years ago." Hawk said.

"Whatever."

"Your room is the coolest room I've ever been to, especially this house."

"Thanks. It's like the best room here where I can just go in and be myself." Jojo said.

They all went out of the room, went downstairs and saw Sally walking across the hall. She saw Jojo and some of his new friends and asked, "Jojo, who are they?"

"Hey, mom. These are my new friends; Sam, Cyrus, Hawk, Jonah and Travis."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." Travis said.

"Where are you all from?"

"We're originally from Whereville, but we moved here sometime a few days ago, because our stepdad had a job here at City Hall as a janitor and I think he's working as a messenger in the City Hall." Jonah said.

"My husband's the mayor here."

"We know. Jojo told us." Sam said.

"So, is he an only kid here?" asked Hawk.

"Nah, Jojo's the oldest of 96 s."

"96? And they're all s?" asked Cyrus.

"Yep."

"Jojo, you never told us you have 96 sisters."

"You never ask."

"You boys wouldn't mind staying for dinner, right?"

"Sure. I just gotta text my stepdad first."

"Perfect."

A couple of hours later, everyone gathered around the table where Jojo and his friends were there having dinner at the McDodd house. Sally asked Jojo, "Where's your father?"

"I'm not sure where he is." Jojo answered.

"He should be home by now."

"Honey, I'm home!"

All of a sudden, Ned comes in and kisses his wife 'hello' and they both sat down and Ned sees Jojo along and asked, "What's the haps, J-Dawg? How's it hanging, my homie?"

Jojo didn't understand it completely and neither did his friends and Sam muttered, "And I thought my stepdad was unusual."

Ned looked at Sam and asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Sam. Most of my friends call me 'Sammy' and these are my brothers, Jonah, Travis, Hawk and Cyrus. We just moved into your guys' neighborhood a couple of days ago." Sam said.

"Where are you all from?" asked Ned.

"Whereville."

"So, does Jojo go to school with you all?"

"Yeah. Jojo's a pretty cool person." Jonah said.

"I met your dad. He seems...kinda odd, in some ways."

"Kinda like someone I know." Sally said.

"Well, my stepdad...can be a little strange in a way towards us."

"How strange?"

Jonah knew that this would lead to a real problem between him and his stepdad and said, "Let's just say he's a person who can't keep his cool down."

"So, in other words, he's an angry person."

"Somewhat."

"Did you let him know you're having dinner with us?"

"Well, I texted him a few hours ago."

"Well, I'm not an expert on texting, but maybe he read it and expects you back at whatever time he expects you to be back."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Minutes later, Jonah and the others were about to head home and then, they turned to Sally and said, "This is pretty cool house you got here."

"Well, thank you."

"And thanks for letting us stay for dinner."

"Anytime."

"Me and Jojo will take you all home." Ned said.

"Bye, nice to meet you."

"Bye, Mrs. McDodd." said Travis.

By the time they got there, they went in the front porch and knocked on the door and within a few seconds, Paul bursted the door open and asked, "What do you want?"

Ned jumps back and said, "Hello, Paul."

Then he realized that it was only Ned and said, "Hello, McDodd. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I came to bring your kids back."

"Why? Where have they been?"

"At our house."

Paul looked at Jonah and asked, "How long were you there?"

"After school."

He was able to keep his cool and said, "Well, thanks for bringing them back home anyway."

"You're quite welcome...I think."

Ned suspected that he is a little strange, but in a different way. Paul looked at Jojo and asked, "Who are you, kid?"

"I'm Jojo."

"Figures."

Jonah and the others came inside and Paul turned to them and said, "See you tomorrow, McDodd. Nice meeting ya, kid."

Then, he slammed the door on both of them and Ned looked at Jojo and he looked at his dad and Ned said, "He does seem kinda strange and when he came here, he seemed intense and whatnot."

"No kidding?"

"As long as he keeps away from my office, I think he'll be the least of my problems."

As soon as Ned and Jojo walked off home, they immediately heard loud noises inside the house and they crept back to see what's the cause. Through the window, they can see Paul going ballistic on those boys.

"You were supposed to be ehre after school!" Paul screamed.

"Is there anything wrong about visiting my new friend?" asked Jonah.

"Why would you be friends with that little shrimp?"

Ned took it to heart when he heard him call his son a 'little shrimp' and got totally offended. Jojo shushed him because he didn't want anyone to see them standing there.

"He's our new friend and he seems cool." Travis said.

"Who asked you?"

"I was just saying."

Paul got totally heated and went off on all five of them. He picked up photo frame and threw it at Travis and hit him on the skull. Then, he jumped on top of him and beat him down hard. Ned and Jojo found it hard to watch Travis gets beaten up. Jonah and Sam planned to save Travis and he grabbed him out of Paul's hands, but Paul turns around and throws both Jonah and Sam on the ceiling and slammed them in a wall. Hawk and Cyrus ran away, but Paul grabbed both of them by the ankle and dragged them to him. They tried to break free, but Paul kept dragging anyway and he picks up a wooden board and beats their head, face, arm and elbow in it.

Ned and Jojo could not believe that this was actually happening in front of their eyes. At that point, Jojo knew that there was a real reason for those scars and bruises. Paul gathers up the boys and slams them down to the chair and yelled, "You boys are useless monsters and somehow, I wish you would not exist in th world. If your beat mother would've left me here with you, why would I even be here? I'm disgusted to call you my stepsons and I wish you'll all have never been born!"

Travis' eyes filled up with tears and he didn't want Paul to see it, but Paul could sense it and slapped him in the face and shouted, "If you shed on tear, I will hurt you...literally."

"I can't help it." Travis said, ly.

He grabbed Travis and punched him in the eye and slammed him down back to the chair. Then, he screamed, "All of you, get to bed!"

Paul stomped upstairs to his room, then slammed the door three times, leaving all five of them emotionally scarred. Sam, Cyrus, Hawk and Travis went in their rooms and suffered in silence, while Jonah was sitting alone in the couch, just crying. Ned and Jojo suddenly feel sorry for the kids and thought that they should come in and show that they're here for him. They looked at each other and Ned asked, "What are we gonna do?"

Jojo sighed and said, "I don't know, dad. I knew that there was something wrong by the look of their scars."

"How?"

"Like someone beat them up before they moved in here and tonight...my instinct was right."

Ned could see that Jojo is positive that Paul was responsible for beating the crap out of them. He felt as if now is the time to just comfort his friend for a few minutes. He slowly went to steps, and the door was open anyway and he saw a broken-down Jonah, sitting on the couch crying. He crept silently towards him and Jonah looks up and sees Jojo standing there. He sniffled a few times and asked, "How long were you there?"

"All of it."

Jonah could tell that Jojo knew the real thing unraveled before his very eyes and asked, "How much did you see?"

"Everything. I'm sorry that this happened to you guys."

"This is why me and my brothers didn't want anyone to know about it, because nobody would care."

Jojo looked at Jonah and wiped his tear and said in a choked voice, "I do."

Jonah stared at Jojo, glassy eyed and said, "I've only known for a day, but you're a good friend, Jojo."

They reached in for a hug and Jonah cried into his shoulder, unaware that his brothers were watching as well. Travis, Sam, Cyrus and Hawk came down and joined in as well. Jojo looked at them and said, "If you guys ever need someone to talk to or at least have some comfort, just count on me and my dad."

Travis sniffled and said, "Thanks, Jojo."

Ned saw it through the window and started smiling. He whispered, "You're a good friend to them, son."

"I gotta go. See you guys tomorrow."

"Okay."

Jojo walks off and then Jonah said, "Hey, since you saw what happened, I guess I should tell your friends tomorrow."

"So will we."

Jojo smiled and said, "I'd appreciate that."

He turned to the door and walked outside, where his father was standing there. He said, "I can't believe I have a furious stepdad as my messenger in city hall. As far as I can tell, that house is not safe for them."

"So, what do we do about it?" asked Jojo.

Ned didn't know what to think and he sighed heavily and said, "I don't know, Jojo. I don't know."

* * *

Jojo knew there was something wrong and he was right. He and his dad saw it in front of their eyes...Jojo's new friends gets beaten by their stepdad. What are they gonna do? Find out later!


	4. The Real Truth

Here's how the magnitude of reality sets in quick.

* * *

Chapter 4: The Real Truth

The next day, Jojo was all ready to go to school after seeing what had happened to his new friends last night. It was all he can think of and he felt as if the reason they made those excuses when they first came here were just to cover up the hurt and pain that their stepfather gave them. Ned stopped him for a sec and asked, "You think they'll be okay?"

Jojo sighed heavily and said, "I hope so."

"Well, have a good day, son."

"You too."

Jojo walks out the door, leaving Ned a bit anxious about seeing Paul at City Hall that day. He sighed heavily and asked himself, "Why did he ever became their stepdad in the first place?"

He's totally unsure about him working at City Hall, but he's got other things to worry about as he leaves for work. Ned said, "I'm gone, Sally."

"Have a good day, sweetheart." Sally said.

"You too."

He walked out of the door, feeling total anxiety and muttered only, "I hope so."

As Jojo went on his way to the school, he saw Jonah walking to school by himself and he caught up with him and said, "Hi, Jonah."

Jonah turned around and there was Jojo behind him. He said, "What's up?"

"Not much. Where are your brothers?"

"They're coming too. I was the only one who woke up early this morning, because of that fiasco last night between me and my stepdad."

"How early?"

"About 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning, because Paul leaves for work early in one of those times. So, we only fend for ourselves to get ready to school and everything else."

"I'm sorry that this really happened to you. I wish you would've told me this when you first came here."

"I couldn't. Because if I did, you wouldn't want to be my friend or something like that and I made stupid excuses about my scars and cuts so everyone would think that I made those little s."

"You could've been honest at first."

"I know."

"You know, you should tell Marcus, Cody, Caitlyn, Mike and Misty about it."

Jonah had this worry expression on his face and asked, "But what if they reject me as their friend?"

"They won't. They'll pretty much understand."

"You think so?"

"Of course. How else would they be my best friends?"

All of a sudden, in comes Mike, Cody and Marcus, who's walking on the other side of the sidewalk. Mike turns around and sees Jojo and Jonah and they waved at them and it caught Jojo's attention. He smiled and waved at them back and asked, "How's it going?"

"Pretty good, dude. You guys walking, too?" asked Cody.

"Yeah, we are."

"Hey, J-2! Where's your brothers?"

Jonah felt surprised that Cody actually gave him a nickname for the first time. He turned to Cody and replied, "They're coming."

"That's cool."

"So, what's with J-2?"

Cody chuckled and said, "Since you're new here, I might as well give you a nickname and 'J-2' seemed like a great one, because we call Jojo 'J-man' or 'Jo-dude' and maybe even 'J'.

Jonah felt like Jojo's friends are accepting him and he's a little confident that he'll be friends with these guys. He smiled silently and said, "I'm cool with that."

A few minutes later, Travis, Cyrus, Hawk and Sam were coming in from behind and caught up with Jonah and Jojo. When they all reached the school, Marcus saw a medium scar in Sam's arm and asked, "What's with the scar in the arm?"

Sam looked at it and asked, "You noticed?"

"Yeah, I did. What happened to it?"

"Well..how can I put this?"

Suddenly, the bell rings and they had to be in class and Sam said only, "I'll tell you about it at lunch."

"Okay."

Everyone dispersed to the classroom and Jonah followed Jonah to first period and hopes that the situation would not be mentioned to the teacher, hopefully. As the afternoon came over, it was already lunchtime and Jojo and Jonah sat down for lunch and Jojo was a little curious about how this started.

Jojo turned to Jonah and asked, "How many scars have you had?"

"Numerous. Most of them were mine, but most were from my stepdad."

"How often does he beat you up?"

"Whenever he gets stressed, angry or just had a tough day, he just takes it out on us for no reason. When we get in trouble or something, then he'll pretty much strike on one of us."

"What possessed him to do something like that?"

Jonah sighed heavily and asked, "I wish I knew. He gets so angry with us, but mostly at me."

"Why?"

"Well, we don't have a good relationship and he always lashes out at me, both physically and verbally. My brothers don't have a good relationship with him either, because we're quiet and often times shy and sometimes even the smallest things that happens to some of us, he beats the crap out of us."

Jojo felt like it wasn't really safe in that house, which leads to the next one. He asked, "So, what was the real reason to come over to my house?"

Jonah breathed heavily and said, "To see where you live and be away from our stepdad, because we know it's not a safe environment here, but we live here, so."

"Hey, guys."

"Just then, Jonah and Jojo saw Marcus, Caitlyn, Misty, Travis, Sam, Hawk, Cody, Cyrus and Mike coming by to join them. Cody asked, "Is there room?"

"For you guys, there's always room." Jojo said.

Everyone sat down and Caitlyn asked, "So, what are we talking about?"

"Not much."

Jonah focused on eating and Misty stared at him and asked, "Is there anything interesting that I might want to hear?"

"What's it to ya?" asked Jonah.

She could sense that Jonah's being a little tense and said, "Sor-ry! I was just asking."

"Misty, I don't think we should push his buttons." Jojo said.

"Who's pushing buttons? All I want to know is what is up with him."

"Everything's cool." Jonah said, angrily.

Then, she could sense something's wrong with him and asked, "No, it's not. You're being irritable."

"I'm not irritated." he said, getting irritated.

"Yeah, you are. I could hear it in your voice."

"I'm not irritated!"

"What is your deal?"

"There is no deal, all right? Just don't want to talk about it."

"There _is _something going on and you're not telling me. I'm not an idiot, you know."

"Misty, I think we should just-" Jojo began, but Misty already stopped him in his tracks. Misty is starting to grow irritated that Jonah's keeping something a secret that he's not telling.

"Either you tell me what's wrong otherwise I might have to force it out on you."

"Like what?"

"I'll keep talking until you tell me the deal-io."

"There is nothing wrong! That's all I have to say."

"Dude, what is your deal? Just tell me now!"

Jonah grew compulsively mad and he couldn't take it anymore, so he slammed the table down hard and shouted, "I'VE BEEN ABUSED BY MY STEPFATHER!"

That drew all of the students' attention and turned to where Jonah was sitting. Misty was at a loss for words and answered, silently, "What?"

Jonah panted hard and said, "My stepfather abuses me a lot."

Misty's face suddenly softened and Cody, Marcus, Mike and Caitlyn were totally unaware of this ordeal. Caitlyn said, "I thought you guys had-"

"We didn't injure ourselves. Our stepfather did it."

"We made it up because we were afraid that you guys would reject us as friends." Travis said.

Mike turned to Travis and asked, "How come you didn't just tell us about it?"

"It was our first day and we didn't anyone to know about it."

"Plus, we were scared, because if our stepfather told us if we tell anyone about this, he'll literally hurt us." Sam said.

Jojo figured that that was the real reason for those excuses and said, "You could've told us about it in the first place."

"I know. My real dad died when we were younger and my mom married our stepfather, but she left him because of his violent behavior towards us and her before we moved here."

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"I don't understand why he would do that." Cody said.

"We don't know, but he has a very short fuse and a huge temper towards us."

"Your mom left you guys?" asked Caitlyn.

"She had to. She couldn't deal with him anymore, so she walked out on us without even telling us 'goodbye'. A couple of weeks later, Paul shot her with a gun and threw her body into an ocean and left us with him."

It was a real shock and a wake-up call for them and their new friends were suffering for it. Misty looked at Jonah and said, "I'm sorry for pressuring you about this. I should've kept my mouth shut."

"Yeah, you would have." Marcus said.

"Put a cork in it."

"No, I'm sorry for blowing up at you and the rest of the cafeteria. I just had so much anger bottled up inside of me that I just wanted to let it out and it comes to a point where I can just vent, but I can't." Jonah said.

"How often does he beat you guys?"

"Everyday."

"I actually saw it unravel. Me and my dad were looking through the window of their house and actually saw it. My dad was more nervous that he has to deal with him while he works in City Hall." Jojo said.

"He works for your dad?" asked Cody.

"Yep."

"What kind of idiot would take him in for a job?" asked Caitlyn.

"If I was his boss, I would fire him in an instant for beating the crap out of those kids." Misty said.

"You don't know Paul. He can literally throw you in a wall and leave bruises and cuts all over your body." Hawk said.

"I wish he would put his hands on me. I would do the same thing to him."

"You couldn't even take me on in basketball." Mike said.

"Shut up, otherwise you'll be next."

"Shutting up."

"Well, don't worry about it. You guys have something that Paul doesn't."

"What's that?" asked Cyrus.

"You got us. We're your friends and we'll always be here for you." Jojo said.

That really touched their hearts and Jonah asked, "How do you know?"

"Because I can relate to you guys, except my dad doesn't abuse me. At times, I feel lonely and sad and whatever, I always have my friends with me to give me their support and they're always there for me when I need them the most."

"J-man has been our friend since our brother Alex died the past year. It's been a traumatic time for us, but since then, me and Cody became close friends with Jojo and we're like brothers than friends." Mike said.

"Being the only two s who are friends with Jojo, we're always there for him and each other too." Misty said.

"We're like a tight group and the bond keeps us stronger." Cody said.

That brought tears to Jonah's eyes and he wiped them quickly and said, "You guys are pretty good friends. We've been longing for someone like you guys for so long."

"We've never had friends like that in...seven and a half years." Travis said.

"Well, it's seven and a half years too long now. You're one of us now."

"You've just joined the Whoville Outcasts." Jojo said.

"Welcome to the party." Mike said.

Jonah and his brothers definitely feel like they're accepted into being one of Jojo's friends and they felt like they're kinda like family, almost. It's possible that they feel like they really belong with their elements and they definitely fit in with them.

Was that sad or what? It gets more dramatic in the next chapter! Stick around! You do not want to miss this!


	5. Tense at Work

A little tense moment from meeting Paul again...this time at City Hall. A sign for total nervousness.

* * *

Chapter 5: Tense at Work

Later that afternoon, Ned was in his office, sitting at his desk, keeping his mind on work and for taking notes. The intercom buzzes and it asked, "Mr. McDodd?"

He quickly replied and asked, "Yes?"

"You have a meeting coming up in an hour. It'll start at around 1:30 and be here a little early."

"Yes, thank you, Ms. Yelp."

"You're welcome, sir."

He sighed heavily and was able to keep his mayoral duties on his mind. The thought about Paul beating his own stepsons and working at the city hall was just eating his mind and he tried everything to block it, but his mind was scattered across, because they were kids. He covered his face and just groaned in frustration that he just wanted to focus on work. He closed his eyes and eased down on his chair, just thinking.

"Why did he have a job here?" asked Ned.

The knock on his door startled him and he asked, "Who is it?"

"It's Paul."

The name sent shivers down Ned's spine that Paul could actually be in his office. He cleared his throat and politely said, "Come on in, sir."

Paul went in the office with a cart of mail coming in. He reached down and said, "Four messages for you."

He hands Ned four letters, but Ned just stared at him in the eye, looking nervous and petrified that he harms his stepsons at home, after witnessing that with his son and it was horrifying for him to see. Paul cleared his throat and asked, "You want them or what?"

Ned went back to reality quick and saw Paul holding four letters on his hand and grabs them and puts them in his desk. Then, he looked at Paul and said, "Thank you, sir."

"You feeling all right, Ned?"

"Um...sort of. What makes you ask me that question?"

There was a long pause between Paul and Ned and it seems as though the way Paul looks actually terrifies him to know that his stepsons were victims of child abuse. He cleared his throat again and said, "You know, your kids were...actually nice of us to come around our house and have dinner with us."

"Yeah, I got the text from Jonah yesterday. I don't text back, because I don't know how texting goes."

"I wish I knew how to text."

"That kid of yours-Jojo, right?-does he give you any trouble?"

"Well, not really. For some reason, he just stays quiet mostly until the ever famous Horton incident that occured a few months ago and we have a good relationship, so no. He doesn't give me any trouble at all."

"That's kinda weird. My father never actually spends time with me and he would always take out his anger on me. When I have a tough day at work, I just get so ticked off that I just try to take my anger out on something I can take at."

"No surprise at all." Ned said, softly.

Paul chuckled and said, "It's funny, because if I take my anger out on my stepkids, people would think I harm them."

Ned chuckled nervously and said, "Well, that sounds absurd."

Paul nodded his head, but then got into Ned's face and asked, "You would never say I beat up my kids, right?"

Ned knew it was something in his eyes that made him want to get more furious. He chucked softly and said, "Of course not."

"You got a problem with me, McDodd?"

"Um...no. You're...you're doing a...a very nice work here at City Hall."

"Good. Well, I guess that's it, then."

"Yeah."

"If I'm intimidated you, you'd tell me, right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that. As far as I know, you're not that intimidating at all."

"Okay, good. Cause I have a short temper and I would flare at my stepsons for no reason, maybe even be a tiny violent towards them, but why would I do that? They're my stepsons after all. They respect me."

"I'm sure they do." he said, chuckling nervously.

"Good then. Have a good day, sir."

"You too."

Paul walks out of the door, leaving Ned sitting in his desk, just being intimidated by Paul's expressions and looks on his face. He shuddered silently and said to himself, "If they respect you, why do you beat them up?"

He doesn't know whether to keep silent about this or tell someone he knows about Paul when he's not at work. He groaned silently and laid his head down on the desk for a while. Another knock came in the door and he said, "Come in."

The door opens and it was one of the principal of Whoville High and he comes in and asked Ned, "Mr. McDodd?"

"Yes, can I help you?"

He sees Ned's head laying down on the desk and then, the principal said, "You might not remember me, but I'm Marshall Scott, Jojo's principal."

Ned opened his eyes, then looked at him in the eye and asked, "Is there something wrong there? Jojo's not getting in any trouble, is he?"

"No, sir. He's not in any trouble."

Ned breathed a heavy sigh of relief and said, "Oh, good. Then, what can I do for you?"

"I actually came to tell you that we have a little issue we're trying to settle with the new kids that moved from Whereville."

Ned's heart sank and asked, "The Mosley boys?"

"Yes, sir. One time when Jonah walked past me as I headed for the office, I saw a huge scar on his elbow that looks like something or someone has been injuring him. We don't know what the cause is, but I can tell that it might be a possiblity of child abuse. Then, later on, some boys were picking on him along with Sam, Travis, Cyrus and Hawk. When the coach came in to break up the fight, he sent them all to the nurses' office, and she saw scars, cuts, bruises, beatings and wounds in all parts of their bodies. She called me up in panic attack mode and I actually saw it in my own eyes. When I told them who did it, all they can say is that it was skateboard injury, fell down a tree or something like that, but I can sense that they're hiding something differently."

"What do you mean?"

"When those boys made excuses for their scars, Jojo was the first to tell me that their stepfather was responsible for it. I just wanted to know that was true that you witnessed it with him, too?"

He didn't want anyone else to know about, but Paul's not here and that he saw it unravel last night. He looked at the principal in the eye and said, "Yes. I actually saw it with Jojo last night after we dropped them off in their house."

"What made you notice it?"

"Well, when we we starting to walk back home, we can hear loud noises and screaming from there and we wanted to see if everything was okay, but then to our surprise, Paul literally-excuse my language-beat the living crap out of these young kids and I was shocked to see it coming. I asked myself, 'Why would he do something like that?' Now, I'm faced with a real dilemma-how to deal with Paul working as a janitor and mail clerk here."

"I can't tell you what to do, but if he worked in this high school and that I would see him beat his kids up-my students, of course-I would fire him and report him to the police."

"Well, thank you for telling me this, sir."

"You're quite welcome, sir. I know you have some mayoral duties to do and I don't want to keep you long enough."

"That's quite fine."

"Also, your son has been watching over these boys and he helped the coach stop the fight back at the gym. He seems like a good friend to them."

"He always relies on his friends and they rely on him, so."

"Anyway, I gotta get back to the school."

"Sure thing, sir."

"Goodbye, Mr. McDodd."

"Have a nice day."

"You too."

As soon as the prinicipal walks out of the office, Ned breathes heavily and he started to work on some important documents that Ms. Yelp left at his desk and started to sign it. Then, the intercom buzzes and Ms. Yelp comes up and said, "Mr. McDodd?"

"Yes, Ms. Yelp."

"It's about 1:15 and the meeting begins in 15 minutes."

"Okay, thank you for telling me."

As soon as he was finished with his duties, he rushes off to the council meeting to attend the meeting. This time, his job and the meeting was the main focus and he'll worry about the issue later on. But deep inside, he's struggling to think what's gonna happen to those kids now.

* * *

Paul is a strange and tense dude, but violent between his stepsons. So, what gonna happen next? Find out later on! Stick around!


	6. Actual Scars

Angsty moment coming through!

* * *

Chapter 6: Actual Scars

Later that afternoon, Jojo walked with Jonah and his brothers to their house for a second to see what their rooms are like. As soon as they step inside the house, Jojo was surprised to that this is how they're living, because their house looks pretty nice, but it's not exactly the happy family they were really living in.

"What do you think of this place?" asked Travis.

"Well, I can say that it looks pretty nice, so how could there's so much anger inside there?" asked Jojo.

"Our stepdad has a habit for beating the crap out of us and he would use several household items on us, like a golf club, baseball bat, crowbar, big pieces of wood, tree branches, or when something's breakable, little pieces of glass could come at us."

Hearing this made Jojo sick to his stomach that their stepfather would even think of doing something this horrible. He asked, "Why would he use these things at you guys?"

"Like we said, he just gets angry after a rough day at work and we're his punching bag and we hate it when we're treated like one."

"Those items weren't the only ones he would get at us, though." Sam said.

"There's more?" asked Jojo.

"Plenty. A frying pan, skillet, big pieces of furniture-like a desk, table, drawers-and even his own hands when he grabs us. And even garden tools, like a shovel, rake-just the stick of the rake."

"Do you guys get in trouble or something?"

"Somewhat, like if we lose something, if we're playing loud music, or even the smallest things, like forget to flush the toilet, playing guitar, not remembering what was the important time and event where he has to go or even oversleeping."

Jojo couldn't understand it at all that their stepfather could even think about those things, just because of something ridiculous or something like that. He asked, "Have you ever asked him to stop the abuse?"

"We have tried, but he gets super-angry at us that he threatened to literally kill us with gun. The same one he used at our mom. "

"That's gotta be hard for you guys."

"It has."

Soon after, Jojo went into Jonah's room and it was dark and moody, and when he turned on the lights, he sees everything there-a bed, computer, guitar, a mirror, rock posters and everything there. He looks around for a while and then, sees a notebook titled, 'Jonah's songbook.'

He took a look at it and in that notebook were lyrics, something that dealt with a lot of pain and suffering that he felt. Then, there was one song that definitely clicked in to his painful moment. He reads some part of the lyrics;

_I woke up it was seven, waited till 11, just to figure out that no one would call I think I got a lot of friends, but I don't hear from them. _

_What's another night alone when you're spending everyday on your own and here it goes; I'm just a kid and life is nightmare; I'm just a kid I know that it's not fair; Nobody cares, cause I'm alone and the world is having more fun than me tonight_

He goes to the next page and sees another song and he read over the next part of the verse that really resonated with his pain and suffering that he was in.

_I kept everything inside and even though it tried, it all fell apart; What it meant to be will eventually be of a memory of a time I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn't even matter; I had to fall to lose it all, but in the end it doesn't really mattter_

He never realized that Jonah could write something that's filled with deep pain that he's feeling and it really connected to the songs he wrote about his dad pressuring him to become mayor, even though he doesn't want to. Just then, he heard footsteps coming in and it was Jonah coming in, seeing that Jojo was looking at his songbook.

"I see you found my songbook."

Jojo turned around and saw Jonah standing there. He said, "Yeah, those songs are amazing. Did you write these?"

"Yeah, I wrote them. Most of them deal with me being sad, lonely, hurt, like I'm a social outcast and also about my abusive relationship with my stepdad."

"That's amazing."

"Check out one I wrote when I was at my lowest point and you can just read through the chorus, because this one always made me feel the pain inside of me."

He looked at his songbook and in one page, he sees a song there and reads;

_You don't know me, don't ignore me, You don't want me there, just shut me out; You don't know me, don't ignore me, If you had your way, you'd shut me up; make me go away that I'm so unwanted_

He can see some little spots on there and Jojo asked, "Are those...dried tears?"

"Yeah. I wrote that last year, because my stepdad called me and my brothers 'a nobody' and it really pierced my heart and I was crying a lot and I think I started writing that while I was crying. Do you know what it's like to have someone that you love, but just feel like they want to go away?"

Then, it clicked on Jojo and said, "Yeah, I do. My dad is all about me wanting to be mayor of Whoville when I really don't want to. I kept silent for a long time since I was 11 and since then, I've never really talked to anyone, because it's so hard to talk to my dad a lot and I think songwriting, for me, is a great escapism from the world and my dad as well. At times, I wish my dad would go away."

Jonah's eyes connected with Jojo's eyes and that both of them have a lot in common; songwriting and feeling that neither of their dads ever understand them. He asked, "Does it ever hurt you?"

"Emotionally and physically."

"How much scars have you had?"

Jonah closed his eyes and pulled up his shirt and there were some scars and beatings on him, made by Paul. Jojo gasped in shock when he saw that and then, he rolled up his sleeves and there were scars and bruises on his right and left arms and there were even scars in his legs too. That kind of thing made Joj feel sorry for them.

Jojo quickly nodded his head and said, "That many."

"My brothers have the same, but theirs are different."

Travis, Sam, Hawk and Cyrus told them about those scars that they had in parts of their bodies, caused by their stepdad and they all write their own songs to take away all the pain they have been dealt with. Jojo blinked his eyes and said, "I'm sorry he did that to you guys."

"We don't like him around us and it made us really scared, like we just want to run away one day and never come back." Travis said.

"He makes us really scared that one of us would...puke."

Jojo widened his eyes and asked, "You would...vomit?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Who does it?"

"I'd say all of us, but mostly me and Jonah." Travis said.

"Why?"

"Seeing him and his face made us sick to our stomachs that we would just upchuck heavily. It was so bad."

"What would happen if you stayed here long enough?"

That question really brought them to tears and Jonah responded, "That we would die."

"And never live to see another day." Hawk said.

"I'm sorry, guys."

"Anyways, I think you need to get home, because my dad gets very ticked when visitors come in unannounced."

Jojo could see that the fear of their stepdad coming in to see him in the house might pop his vein. He nodded his head and said, "I hope you guys are gonna be okay."

"And Jojo?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for getting us out of that fight back at the gym. No friend would do that for us." Cyrus said.

Jojo chuckled and said, "You guys are my new best friends. If you need someone to talk to, just call me up."

"Will do." Sam said, tearfully.

"You guys can give me the number when we're at school, okay?"

"Sure thing."

"See you guys tomorrow."

Jojo walked off the house, leaving all five brothers in a state of tears after hearing Jojo call them his 'new best friends' and they went through the window to see him walk back home. Jonah's the one that really got the most emotional, because he referred to Jojo as his 'best friend'.

Travis heard Jonah crying behind him and he turned to him and asked, "Why are you crying, Jonah?"

Jonah sniffled a little and said, "Nobody's ever referred to me as their best friend before."

"So, how did it make you feel?" asked Hawk.

"I don't know, it just feels as if a little piece of me is healing up."

"We feel the same way too."

* * *

Does that touch your heartstrings? BTW, those songs were 'In the End' from Linkin Park, 'I'm Just a Kid' from Simple Plan and 'Unwanted' from Avril Lavigne. I feel sorry for these guys. It's a good thing Jojo's here for them. Stay tuned for more of this sad story.


	7. Hanging Out for a Day

This one starts out angsty, but ends up with Jonah having some fun with friends. So, check it out!

* * *

Chapter 7: Hanging Out for a Day

The next day, Jojo was walking towards the park when he sees Cody, Marcus and Mike there on the trees. Cody looks at Jojo passing by and said, "Hey, J-dude!"

Jojo froze, turned around and saw them sitting there. He chuckled and said, "Hey, guys. What are you doing?"

"Just kicking back, taking it easy, you know."

He sees their backpacks on the shade as well and asked, "Can I join you?"

"Dude, we always have room for you."

Jojo walks towards the tree, puts his backpacks down and sits down towards them. He told them, "Can you guys imagine how crazy it was back at Who-Biology?"

"You mean that video about how our food gets inside our body? Talk about weirdness."

"One of those scenes with the stomach actually made me want to puke." Mike said.

Marcus groaned in disgust and said, "Please do not talk about that anymore. I'm still recovering from seeing how little pieces of food can actually go down to the stomach."

"And then they wanted us to write a review about it."

"How's this for a review? 'The video made me want to throw up and actually burned my eyes. It was a wasted 25 minutes of a science film reel for the class to actually learn something.'" Mike said.

"What about this one; 'I give this learning reel 2 thumbs down'." Marcus said.

"Or...'They say the film reel involves something about how the food gets sucked in your esophagous. I say the film just plain sucked.'" Cody said.

Jojo chuckled and said, "To be honest, I actually got bored in the first 10 minutes of it."

"You were drowsy?" asked Mike.

"Sorta."

"Dude, I'd be tired too if I had to see another film like that."

"And how many pages were we supposed to write?" asked Cody.

"Something about 2 pages of a review."

"Only two pages? I could write a song in two pages." Jojo said.

Everyone started laughing and talking about the subject matter and Marcus asked, "Have you seen Jonah?"

"Last time I saw him was Group Therapy period."

"How's he doing?"

"He's okay. I actually went over to his house and it was actually a nice house."

"A nice house? After Jonah told us about how his stepfather beat the crap out of him and his bros, I thought it might involve a broken house." Mike said.

"It's weird. But as soon as I went into his room, it was kinda similar to mine. I thought it was kinda normal, but then I looked at his songbook and some of the songs he wrote have blown me away. It had so much angst, hurt, pain, sorrow and you can tell it was about his stepfather in the song. It's like I can relate to him easily, only my dad doesn't abuse me. When I read them, I immediately thought that he's great at pouring out his emotions on paper."

"He's kinda like you when you write songs, right?" asked Cody.

"Sorta, but I don't know. It just feels...real. It's a good feeling to write something about how you feel and just let out all your emotions that you've been bottling in for so long and just let it release when you write."

"I wish you could see my songbook." Marcus said.

Cody, Mike and Jojo turned around and Cody asked, "You write songs, too?"

"Yeah, I do. I've been writing songs in my notebook since I was 11 or 12. So, I think I can relate."

"Amazing!"

All of a sudden, Jonah walks past them with his head hanging down. Jojo turned around and saw him walking, saying nothing. He said, "Hey, Jonah!"

Jonah didn't hear him and just kept on walking. Jojo could already suspect something is wrong and Mike asked, "How come he's not speaking to us?"

"Something's happening."

"How do you know?"

"I don't know. I think I got a sense for this."

Jojo stood up, follows Jonah and tries to get his attention. Cody, Marcus and Mike wanted to know what was up, so they grabbed their backpacks and followed Jojo to see if Jonah's okay. As soon as Jonah sat down on the edge of the tree, he immediately broke down crying. Jojo went over to the tree and saw Jonah crying his eyes out. He quietly went towards him and whispered, "Jonah, are you okay?"

Jonah sobs twice andslowly raised his head up and the result was one black eye on the right. Jojo gasped in horror and asked, "Did your stepfather do that?"

"Yeah, he did it." Jonah replied, tearfully.

"When?"

"This morning."

Marcus, Cody and Mike walked over to where Jojo and Jonah were and by their surprise, they saw a black eye in Jonah's eye. They walked over to him and Marcus asked, "Who did this?"

"My stepdad."

"What's wrong with this dude?" asked Cody.

"He just gets mad at me and my brothers. This morning, he punched me in the face for oversleeping."

Their faces looked confused and Jojo asked, "You overslept?"

"It was a total accident. I woke up at 7:25 and my brothers were already at school and it took me like 15 or 20 minutes to get ready and when Paul came back in the house, he saw me running down the stairs and realized that I overslept. I told him it was an accident, but does he care? Not really. So, he just gave me a black eye for oversleeping and then, he left. At that point, I was scared to come to school and that anyone can see my eye and I used my sunglasses to avoid anyone seeing my insanely black eye."

"I'm sure it was no big deal." Mike said.

"It was a big deal...to him."

"What happened when someone asked you to take it off?"

"The teachers told me not to wear sunglasses in and when I took it off, they were in total shock that I received a black eye and one of them thought it was one of the students, but I told them the truth-my stepdad did it."

"How did they react to it?"

"They couldn't believe it. They were in a state of shock that my stepdad would do something like that. I wanted to make excuses for it, but they wanted the honest truth, so I told."

"Dude...that's brutal." Cody said.

"You know you have to tell someone about this, right?" asked Jojo.

"If I do, my stepdad will physically slaughter me."

"Okay, I understand you're scared, but what's more important-keeping it a secret or your life?"

Jonah knew it was a hard decision to make about either keep it inside and suffer the abuse forever or let it stop by telling someone about this. He didn't want this anymore than his brothers,so he looked at Jojo in the eye and said, "What do I do?"

"I think it would be a great thing if you just told them the truth about what really happened."

"I don't know if I can do that."

"You have to. You and your brothers are scared of him and you have to tell someone about this."

"I can't do that."

"You're making this happen again. That means that you're avoid help for yourself and your brothers."

"I just don't want to die, okay?"

"You're not going to."

"And you think by telling someone that my stepfather beats me that will make it better? I don't want to be separated from my brothers."

"Dude, just take in what Jojo's saying. Don't wait until it's too late. We're here to help you and if you want to avoid confrontation and violent outbursts from your stepdad, you have to tell someone about it. Don't just bottle it in."

Jonah was completely frustrated about this whole thing and he knows he wanted to tell someone about it and Jojo already knew, because he saw it with his own eyes and Jojo read his eyes that he's really scared about what would happen if they do tell about thier stepfather. He looked at him in the eye and said, "You're right. I kept it inside of me for 5 years and it was too long for me and my brothers."

"So that means..."

Jonah sighed heavily and said, "I don't want to live in fear anymore and I know neither will my brothers. I gotta...tell somebody about this."

Jojo smiled and said, "Are you willing to tell someone about it?"

Jonah nodded his head and figured that it would be the best thing for himself and for his brothers as well. Jojo sees one tear falling from his face and wipes it for him. He hugged Jojo tightly and whispered, "Thank you, Jojo."

"Hey, once a friend, always a friend."

"So, you wanna hang out with us?" asked Cody.

"Sure thing." Jonah said.

"Wanna head to our place? It's really a lot of fun."

"Where do you guys live?"

* * *

A few minutes later, Jojo, Marcus and Jonah were behind Cody and Mike as they showed them their place. When they stepped inside of the place, it was huge and wider with millions of space. Jojo immediately dropped his jaw and Marcus gasped deeply when they saw the size of that house. Marcus said, "Dude..."

"Well, what do you guys think?" asked Mike.

"Why didn't you tell us it was this big?"

"I thought it might be a good idea to fill you in on how it looks like if we plan to welcome you in there."

"It's got everything here-an room, music room, game room, basically just a hang out place." Cody said.

"Where do you guys bunk in?" asked Marcus.

"I thought you'd never ask."

They followed them upstairs and Cody showed them their room. Jonah, Jojo and Marcus gasped in complete and utter shock when they entered there. The room had dark blue and striped red walls with a black carpet on the ground and in the room, there were rock posters, a computer, TV with a video game, DVD player along with a foosball table. Cody asked, "Are you surprised or what?"

"Totally surprised." Marcus said.

"Me and Mike always come here if we want to beat other for some serious gaming. I always win, because it's my console."

Mike scoffed and said, "So you say. I'm a better competitor than you are."

"Dude, please. I'm way more of the competitve edge than you are."

"So what do you guys do for fun?" asked Jonah.

"What we do for fun is just dancing, playing guitars and watching movies. But mostly video ."

"Sounds awesome."

"But we always play some sports-like basketball and ping pong. And we do it in our secret room."

"Secret room?"

"Follow us."

They walked over to the bookcase and they pulled the door open and they opened the door behind it and it was this amazing orange and green room with a basketball court and a ping-pong table. Jojo, Jonah and Marcus gasped in shock when they saw the entire thing.

"This is how we have fun. We're both awesome at basketball and ping-pong." Cody said.

"Tell ya what, why not show you guys my room first, then we'll meet here for some serious gaming." Mike said.

"Good deal."

A few seconds later, they went into Mike's room and there were guitars, TV with a DVD player, video ystem, rock posters, computers, a Who-pod and everything else in between. Mike said, "Welcome to my palace. It's not as cool as Cody's, though."

Cody scoffed and asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just an expression."

"Whatever."

"What do you do in here?" asked Jojo.

"Mostly, I do my homework here, play guitar, play video , watch movies, rock out to my favorite songs, write my own songs. Just basically everything here."

"Why didn't you tell us you have an awesome place like this?" asked Marcus.

"We were waiting for the right time that we can actually see our place with you guys, because we're friends."

"Our favorite areas here are the movie theatre, game room and also a music room."

As soon as they went in the areas of the house, Jojo, Marcus and Jonah marveled at the music room, played serious at the room and also see what the chairs feel like in the movie theatre. Soon after, they returned to Cody's room with a secret rom behind the bookcase and played some basketball and ping-pong. Jojo and Cody were playing ping-pong while Jonah, Mike and Marcus were busy playing basketball.

Jonah didn't worry too much about the issues at home, because he was too busy having fun with them and at that moment, he realized that he just needed to get out more and be with his friends and he's hoping his brothers can share that as well.

A few hours later, they were pretty much ready to go home and Jojo, Marcus and Jonah were leaving the place. Jojo said, "Thanks for showing us around here. Your place is cool."

"Yeah, thank you guys for actually coming here." Mike said.

"We still gotta write what we really think of what we saw in Who-Biology class about that stomach going in the body thing. They say it's worth half our grade." Marcus said.

"Half our grade? After seeing that, I would give half my eyes to blur it away." Cody said.

"True. But still..."

"Yeah, we gotta do it. The movie sucked hard, but it's for science."

"At least let's get this over with." Jojo said.

"True. We'll see you guys in school tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

"Later, guys."

"Hey, Jonah. Thanks for hanging out with us. You just needed some fun and I think you got it." Mike said.

Jonah smiled and said, "Thanks."

They left the house and Jonah and Jojo said 'bye' to Marcus as he left and Jojo said, "Remember what I said, okay?"

"I'll try my best."

"And remember, if you need someone to talk to, just come to me or my dad. We'll help you out with anything."

"Of course. You're a good friend, Jojo."

"Thanks. See you tomorrow, okay?"

"All right, bye."

Jojo and Jonah walked home in different directions and the sun was starting to set. He knows he has to get home, but after today, it just seems as though he had the best time of his life with his friends. That's all he needed-to have some fun with them.

* * *

How cool is this? Stick around for more!


	8. Advice

Jonah seeking advice from the mayor (Jojo's dad) and words of comfort to add along to it.

* * *

Chapter 8: Advice

The next afternoon, Jonah went home from school, but needed some advice from Jojo's dad, so he took a detour to City Hall, hoping that he can pass his stepdad and finds his office. He took a deep breath and walked by the halls of the City Hall and while he's there, he asked someone where the mayor's office is. A few seconds later, he knocked on the mayor's door and Ned said, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Jonah Mosley."

Ned could recognize that voice and said, "Come in."

He opened the door and Jonah came by to his office and Ned saw Jonah's black eye and it was healed up. He asked, "May I help you?"

"Well, I just needed some advice."

"Oh, sure. What is it?"

"Since I moved in here from Whoville, I felt as if I was scared to actually fit in this school and now that I met Jojo, it just didn't seem scary. The only thing I'm worried about is actually telling someone about my abusive relationship with my stepfather. He scares me and my brothers and we're always the victim of his outbursts and sometimes, it can grow violent. I'm worried that if I do tell someone about my stepfather and his temper, that he might actually kill me and my brothers. What should I do?"

Ned sighed heavily and said, "Well, here's what I'm thinking. You can't keep everything bottled up forever. If you feel that way, maybe you should tell someone that cares and tell them your issue with your stepfather. It's okay if you do."

Jonah sighed and said, "I know, but I'm afraid of what would happen if he finds out."

"Well, all you have to do is stand up to him and tell him 'enough is enough'. I can't imagine any parent abusing their kids as a way to let out stress. That's aggressive anger towards children. As a mayor, I deal with this kind of thing everyday, but as a parent, I always tell my kids how much I love them everyday. I look at Jojo and I look at my 96 daughters. How can anyone hurt their own child?"

"I know, right? Sometimes I wonder why was he ever my stepdad in the first place."

"Whatever happened to your real dad?"

"When I was younger-probably 6 or 7, my dad died of a heart attack. I never understood what death was, but it was hard for me to get used to it, because he was supportive, loveable, a cool person and I would always look up to him and whenever I have problem or need someone to talk to, he's always there for me and my brothers. Now that he's gone, I'm in charge of looking after all my siblings. I love them, but sometimes I just want to go back to being a kid."

"What brought Paul in the picture?"

"When he married our mom, she thought that they would be together forever, but boy, was she wrong. There were fights, arguments and violent outbursts between them all the time and every night, I lie awake and just hear them screaming and everything. It scared me a lot and so did my brothers and he beats her up and one night, I walked downstairs and told him, 'Please don't hurt my mom'. He didn't take it well, so he took it out on me and just beat me up s hard. My brothers saw it and he beat them up as well. And when we got older, my mom left Paul and us, but moments later, he killed her. It was shocking to see in front of our eyes like, 'why did this happen?'."

Ned quivered his lip after hearing that happen and he was actually shocked and disturbed to know that their mom died, in such a brutal and violent way. He asked, "What made him so angry?"

"No one really knows, but he just has a hot temper and takes it out on us."

Ned couldn't stomach the fact that these kids were emotionally scarred by their stepfather. He actually felt sorry for them and looked at him in the eye and said, "Are you safe where you live?"

Jonah knew the question would hit him and he closed his eyes, lifted his head down and nodded his head as a 'no', with only one tear falling from his face. Ned got up, got down to him on one knee, puts his hand on his shoulder and whispered, "I'm sorry, Jonah. I'm sorry you had to go through all that."

He then hugged him tightly and Jonah cried through his shoulder. Ned couldn't stomach the fact that Paul could actually kill his wife, beat his stepsons and that they're suffering from it. He looked at Jonah in the eye and said, "I'm glad you picked today to come here and talk to me."

"I'm glad I did too. Jojo's a pretty good friend."

"He's a good kid."

"I guess I gotta get home."

Jonah turned around and Ned stopped him and said, "Our house is welcome to you and your brothers. If you need to see us or Jojo, our door is always open for you guys."

Jonah smiled at Ned and said, "Thanks."

"Bye."

"See ya."

Jonah walked out of Ned's office, feeling a little happy. But, they're both unaware that Paul overheard the entire thing and that made him totally upset and that he's got brutality on his mind and the person he's gonna go after is Jonah. He growled lowly and breaks the the mop in half and said, "Jonah, you're gonna be dead when I get home..."

* * *

Uh-oh...this is not gonna be good! Find out next!


	9. Confronting Jonah

Bring on the ultimate conflict match!

* * *

Chapter 9: Confronting Jonah

Later on, Jonah headed back home, feeling a little bit confident about what Ned told him and that he's a better person and is almost like a father figure, unlike Paul. He enters the house and walks upstairs to just get started on his homework. He's done only two subjects for about an hour and a half and after he got through with them, he decided to come see what his brothers are up to. He gets off his bed, walks out of the room and goes to Travis' room to see what he's up to. He knocks on his door and Travis said, "Come in."

Jonah opened the door and Travis turned around and he saw his brother coming in. He smiled and said, "Hey."

"Hi. What are you doing?"

"Just practicing the guitar."

Jonah heard Travis play his guitar and he seemed like a natural at it, because he has heard him play guitar a million times before and has always liked his renditions of songs in it. He chuckled and said, "I'm a bit rusty, but..."

"I think it's awesome." Jonah said.

That lightened up Travis' eyes and asked, "You think so?"

"Absolutely."

"Wow, thanks."

"No problem."

Jonah walks out of Travis' room and went back to his room, but just as he was about to enter, a burst from the front door startled him from upstairs. He looked down and saw that it's Paul and he looked extremely heated. Then, he saw Jonah upstairs and shouted his name at the top of his lungs.

"JONAH!"

Paul was seething a lot and Jonah slowly crept up from behind the wall and asked fearfully, "Y-Yeah, Paul?"

"Get down here right now!"

That sent shivers down to his spine and he walked downstairs and faced him, looking deeply upset and furious at him. He asked, "Is there anything wrong?"

"I saw you with the mayor and he actually...hugged you?"

Jonah didn't know that he actually saw the mayor hugging him tightly while he was in his office. He asked, "How'd you see that?"

"When I walked past his office, I was you talking to him and I heard you say some stupid things about me beating you guys up."

"Well...it's somewhat true."

"IT IS NOT TRUE!" Paul shouted.

That really scared the crap out of him to hear him raise his voice directly at him and he said, "I-I just needed to talk to someone about this."

"I told you boys not to tell anyone that I've ever beaten you all and you let the secret come out?"

"I can't keep things bottled up forever. Plus, I wanted to tell someone about it, anyway."

Paul couldn't believe what he was hearing and he was not only mad at Jonah, but also at the mayor's kid. He turned away and asked, "It was that mayor's kid that talked you into it, didn't he?"

"Well, yeah he did. He was just helping me out."

Then, Paul turned to Jonah and said, "That stupid emo look-alike couldn't fit to be your friend! You are not going to be involved with that freak or his dad again, you got it?"

Hearing this shattered Jonah that he couldn't see Jojo, but that little voice in his head wanted to tell him off, because Jojo's been a real good friend to him and he replied, "No."

Paul froze for a second, then slowly turned to Jonah and asked, "W-What did you say?"

"You heard me. I'm so sick of you beating on me and my brothers all the time and making us feel like crap."

"That's because you _**are **_crap! You're weak, useless and no-good!"

"At least I'm special."

Paul slapped Jonah in the face hard and threw him into the wall and shouted, "YOU SHUT UP! You are NOT special at all! Whoever told you something like that must be stupid enough to be your friend. You're pathetic, useless a nobody and nobody will EVER be your friend!"

Jonah got up and said, "You're wrong."

"How would you know? You're 15 years old!"

"So what? I know who my friends are and Jojo is one of them!"

"That punk is not your friend!"

"He is!"

"Stay away from Jojo!"

Jonah grew really ticked and knew that he won't take anymore of his stepfather's abusive attitude, so he lowered his eyebrows and said, "Make me."

Paul snarled at him, and then he climbed up the coffee table, jumped at Jonah and bodyslammed him down to the ground. Objects were thrown directly at him and he beat him up and there were screaming from all over the house.

On the outside, the screaming and throwing things were heard a mile away and Jojo walked past the house and the screaming definitely caught his attention. He climbed over to the window and saw Paul just losing it at Jonah. He gasped in shock and figured that Paul was being more violent and aggressive towards him. Ned comes in and finds Jojo looking at the window and he saw a terrible sight in there.

"Someone's got to stop." Ned said.

Jojo braced himself for the extreme and went in on himself and opened the door and shouted, "STOP!"

The fight was in a constant pause when Paul and Jonah looked at Jojo and Jonah was overjoyed. Jojo turned to Jonah and asked, "You okay?"

"Not really." Jonah answered.

"Get out of my house! You're not welcome here!" Paul shouted.

"Maybe he doesn't want to get out of your house." Ned said, as he stepped in.

"You shut up!"

"Maybe he doesn't want to shut up!" Jonah exclaimed.

Paul punched him in the eye and Ned couldn't bear to see this anymore. He stepped up to Paul and said, "I didn't want to say anything, but after seeing this again, it's obviously you have a problem."

"The problem is you and that little ragamuffin emo brat that you call your son! What kind of father are you?" Paul asked.

"Nobody talks to my son like that!"

"Your son is a troublemaker to my kids."

"Since when?" asked Jojo.

"Since you showed up in their lives."

"I'm being a good friend to them. It's your fault that they're afraid of you."

"So what if they're afraid of me? They should be afraid of me! That's how they'll respect me."

"By turning to violence and taking it out in front of your kids?" asked Ned.

"I'll murder these kids if I have to and you'll do it if anyone comes in my way!"

Then, he punched Ned in the face and lunged at Jojo's neck. Jojo started choking and he got strangled a couple of times and threw him in the wall. Ned gets up and saw Jojo lying on the ground. Paul comes at him with a crowbar to use it on Jojo. Ned gasped in horror and runs towards him and grabs him by the ankle and made him fall down on the floor.

"You leave my son alone!" Ned shouted.

"I haven't harmed your son...yet."

All of a sudden, Jonah flies in and grabs him by the neck and pushing him down on the floor. Then, he went upstairs and fell down from there and bodyslammed him down on the ground. Paul grabbed him and threw him to the couch and landed on the floor. Paul comes at Jojo and said, "You're the mistake of meeting my stepsons!"

"No, the mistake was harming my son and hiring you in City Hall." Ned said.

Paul turns to him and asked, "What does that mean?"

"You're fired."

That made him even more upset than ever and he turns to Ned and beat him up senselessly and Paul comes at Jojo and beats him down as well. Travis, Jonah, Sam, Hawk and Cyrus watch in horror to see them both beaten up. Suddenly, Jonah couldn't take it anymore and shouted, "STOP IT!"

It suddenly stopped and Ned ended up with a few scars and beating marks on his face and Jojo's face ended up with a black eye and a few cuts and bruises. Jonah felt totally mad and said, "You leave my friends alone!"

"They are not your friends! Since when have you ever made friends with them in the first place?" Paul shouted.

"For a long time, I felt so lonely until I met Jojo, his dad and some of Jojo's friends. We all feel the same way as well and that's what we like about them."

Paul could not believe what he was hearing; that his brothers were friends with Jojo as well. He asked, "You're friends with him, too?"

"Best friends." Travis said.

Paul snarled and let Ned and Jojo go and they went away and Ned turns around and said, "This isn't over!"

As soon as they left, they beat the crap out of the boys, one-by-one and intimidated them nonstop. After only 3 hours of ultimate bullying and torture, it was over. Travis, Jonah, Hawk, Cyrus and Sam went back to their rooms, beaten and scarred. Jonah went into his bed with tears in his face and he turned away on the other side of the bed, just crying his eyes out.

Travis crept into the room and saw Jonah breaking down again and this time, he puts his hand on Jonah's shoulder. Jonah turned slowly and saw Travis, looking misty-eyed. He said, "You stood up to Paul."

"I just couldn't take the abuse anymore. It hurt me a lot more than you guys." Jonah said.

"What's gonna happen to us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well..."

He paused for a second and sighed heavily and said, "Never mind. I'll tell you later."

He left Jonah's room with tears in his eyes and Jonah's eyes welled up with tears as well as he laid down on his bed, with his head laid down on the pillow and a few tears were coming down on his face. He knows that Jojo is a really good friend to them and he doesn't know why his stepfather would say some horrible things about him.

* * *

Whoa! Talk about your family drama! This is BRUTAL family drama! How can Paul do something like that? What is he thinking? Stick around for more!


	10. Nightmare

A scary nightmare for Travis! BTW, he's the last-born of the triplets.

* * *

Chapter 10: Nightmare

Later that night, Travis was tossing and turning, just feeling scared and helpless in his sleep and he was groaning, sighing and whimpering in his sleep and talking as well.

"What do you want? No...please...please don't hurt me!"

_Nightmare_

_Travis ran quickly as he can through the forest, panting so furiously and just trying to get away from his stepfather. He turns around and sees him charging at him with a gun, which made Travis run even faster. He panted furiously and tries to lose him, then he walks to a nearby empty space, hiding away from him, hoping that he will lose him very quickly. Paul got past him and he panted heavily and sat down on the ground. _

_It was late at night and he was walking on the forest by himself, hiding in a nearby tree, and started to cry. He curled himself in a little ball, buried his face to his knees and started crying softly. As the tears went out of his face, he feels as though he's all alone with no one around to protect him._

_Then, he hears something from the tree. It startled him in fright and to his surprise, he saw Jojo's body, hanging up in the branch and there was blood coming out of his skull. He gasped in sheer horror as he realizes that someone killed him. He backed away slow-like, shuddering in fright, but then, he felt something from behind._

_He turns around and it was Hawk, Cyrus and Sam, their lifeless bodies hung in three separate trees. He couldn't believe his eyes and whispered, "No... this can't be happening."_

_Then, he sees Mike, Cody, Marcus, Caitlyn and Misty's body in the tree as well. He covered his mouth in a total state of shock when he saw them lifeless in the tree. He screamed in total fright and shock that they were killed senselessly. He backed away and started running quickly._

_"Oh, no. Please tell me this isn't happening. Why are my brothers and my friends dead?" Travis asked, in fear._

_As he was running, he stopped and saw Jonah's body hanging lifelessly in the tree and screamed, "NO! JONAH! Not you too! Please tell me this isn't happening to me!"_

_He started sobbing uncontrollably when he saw his oldest brother, lying lifelessly in the tree and being killed senselessly. _

_"How could this happen to me?"_

_Then, he heard rustling coming through the tree, which scared him and kept breathing rapidly and then, he backed away slowly when he saw Paul coming in at him. He gasped in shock as he brought in an axe towards him. He backed away slowly, but then fell down on the ground. Paul cacked sinisterly and said, "Now I have you...and you will meet your end!"_

_"Why are you doing this?" asked Travis._

_"I wanted to silence your friends and your brothers have had their warning, but it's too late for them. Now, you're the last one to slaughter with."_

_"Please leave me alone!"_

_"Hold still!"_

_Travis tried to run, but Paul grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him down the ground. Travis kept screaming as he tried to grab something to hold him, but there was nothing left. As Paul let go, he raised his pickaxe in the sky to aim it at Travis._

_"NO!" Travis screamed._

_He lowers the axe and-_

* * *

Back to reality

Travis opened his eyes, screaming hysterically and then, he panted heavily and saw that it was all a nightmare. A very scary nightmare. Tears filled his eyes and he started crying softly. He laid down on his bed and continued sobbing softly into his pillow. Jonah crept into his room to check to see if he's okay. He gently puts his hand on his shoulder and Travis turned around to see Jonah there.

Jonah asked softly, "Are you okay?"

Travis cried onto Jonah's shoulder and asked, "Why would Paul hurt us so bad?"

Jonha hugged him tightly and said, "If only I knew."

Travis sniffled a few times and asked, "Are we gonna die?"

"No, we're not gonna die. No matter what happens, we'll be okay."

Travis held onto Jonah as he kept crying. Jonah hugged him tightly and said, "It's okay. I'm here now."

"It was such a bad dream. It was like you guys were gone and I was all alone."

"You're not alone anymore, Travie. I'm here...and I'll always be here, because you're my brother."

Travis wiped his eyes and sniffled three times and whispered, "Thank you."

Jonah lets go of Travis and said, "We'll be okay. I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good night."

"Night."

Jonah left the room and Travis was lying in bed, asleep with one more tear rolling down his face and then he closed his eyes and fell asleep, hoping that things will be okay in the morning. Feeling Jonah's hug made him feel like he's actually loved and that he's like a good brother to him and he feels lucky to have a brother like Jonah, because he feels as though he's a protector to him and like a father to him at times. That's why he always looks up to him, like a big brother.

* * *

Poor Travis! That's a brutal nightmare. But he's not the only one! Stick around!


	11. Jonah's Nightmare

Travis isn't the only one with a nightmare that involves Paul.

* * *

Chapter 11: Jonah's Nightmare

An hour passed by and Jonah was asleep, then he groaned in his sleep like there's something wrong. He was tossing and turning and just feeling kinda anxious in his sleep. He panted heavily and kept talking in his sleep.

"What are you doing? What are you doing to my mom? What do you want from me?" he asked, sleepily.

* * *

_Nightmare_

_In his dream, Jonah was only eight years old, scared in his bed, hearing his mom and Paul arguing loudly and he couldn't stand to hear it at such a young age. He felt that it was scary and something bad might happen._

_He hears glass breaking, screaming at the top of their lungs and punches thrown. Jonbah was shaking so badly that it was simply that horrible and disturbing to hear. He got up from his bed, a little timid, slowly creeping out of the door, hoping no one would see him and as he got to the stairs, he sees something totally horrible._

_"What are you doing to me?" his mother asked._

_Paul holds a gun at his hand and said, "This is what happens when someone tries to dump me. You better not leave me anymore."_

_"I've had it up to here with you treating me like this!"_

_"Why?"_

"For one thing, you're beating on me and you're also hurting my kids!"

_"They're MY kids, too!"  
_

_"STEPKIDS! Why did I ever re-marry you in the first place?"_

_"First of all, I forced you to propose to me when we started dating, but you were turning me down."_

"My kids needed someone to take care of them, not to bring harm to them!"

_"They need to learn how to respect me and so do you!"  
_

_"How can it happen if you don't respect me?"_

_Paul punched her in the face and she fell down to the floor and shouted, "YOU SHUT UP! I hate it when you disrespect me!"_

_Her face was bloodied up and asked, "YOU disrespect me!"_

_"YOU SHUT UP, YOU MISERABLE EXCUSE OF A WOMAN! You're my second wife, so you better get used to me! I've had it up to here and your little midget kids!"_

_She couldn't stand to hear what he said and told him, "Take that back!"  
_

_"Why, so you could wait for another person like your deadbeat husband?"  
_

_"Don't you dare speak that way about Carlos! You're not even half the man he was!"_

_Paul was seething, so he slapped her in the face, then he climbed onto the coffee table and bodyslammed her down to the ground. Then, he lunged at her face and kept punching her all around and pushed her down the wall. Then, he picked up his crowbar and bashed her all over. Jonah couldn't bear to witness this happen to his own mother like that. His mother tried to get up, all beaten and bloodied up and when she tried to leave, Paul grabbed her by the ankle and dragged her to him and said, "If you ever leave me, I will kill you."_

_"I'd like to see you try!"  
_

_Paul picks up his gun and points it to her and then, he pushes her down the ground, screaming, "YOU ARE WORTHLESS! I can't believe you'd mother these kids!"_

"They're my kids! I can't have you treating them like this!"

_Paul's patience was wearing thin, so he decided to end it by ending her life. He points the gun at her and said, "If I can't have you, nobody can!"_

_"STOP!"_

_Paul looked up and saw Jonah upstairs, crying. He looks at him with tears in his eyes and said, "Please don't hurt my mom."_

_"You shut up, you little brat! And stop crying!"_

_The tears keep rolling down his face and Jonah said, "Please leave my mom alone."_

_"SHUT UP!"_

_"You don't talk to my Jonah like that!"_

_Paul was fed up with it, so he shot four bullets at Jonah's mom and when Jonah saw this, he closed his eyes and started screaming. Then, Paul turned to Jonah and plans to chase him down, Jonah backed away slowly and ran back to his room, and Paul fiercely ran up to his room, but as soon as he got there, the door was locked. He knocked on his door as loud as it could go. Jonah was hiding under the covers of his bed, just screaming, "GO AWAY!"_

_"I'm coming for you, you little brat!"_

_"NO!"  
_

_Paul felt totally furious, so he backed away and then, rams to the door. As soon as Paul burst through the door, Jonah was screaming and he was hiding under the covers and then, Paul removed the covers and Jonah was there, just crying and feeling really scared._

_He grabbed him by the ankle and said, "You shouldn't have gotten in our way!"_

_"Why did you kill my mom?"  
_

_"Maybe you ought to join her?"_

_"Don't kill me, please!"_

_Paul fiercely hung Jonah on his closet hook near the door and Paul aimed the gun at him and Jonah screamed, "No, please! PLEASE!"  
_

_Then, he fires one shot at him and then two more and suddenly, one last shot._

_BANG!_

_

* * *

Back to reality_

Jonah woke up screaming loudly, with sweat coming out of his head. He panted heavily and sees that he's back to his room. He laid his head against the pillow and just started breaking down in tears. Even though it didn't really happen-because it was a nightmare-, he seemed very vulnerable when his mom got killed by Paul.

He whispered, with tears in his eyes, "Mom, why did you leave me? Why did you leave us behind with Paul? I wish you would've protected us."

He cried behind his pillow and cried himself to sleep, just vulnerable and lonely and full of sadness about everything he felt about Paul. He's got the feeling that everything isn't gonna be okay for Jonah and his brothers.

* * *

Is this sad or what? Poor Jonah. Hope ya'll like it! Stay tuned for more!


	12. Innocence

Jonah's secret talent...

* * *

Chapter 12: Innocence

The next morning, Jojo walked towards Jonah's place to see if he's okay after that agonizing night of violence with his stepfather. He comes in the door, walks around the place and sees that it's quiet there. He began to grow worried about him and called his name throughout the entire house.

"Jonah! Jonah! Jonah, are you here?" Jojo said.

He kept looking for Jonah until he heard someone playing piano in one of the rooms. He kept hearing it until he stood in Jonah's room, not being able to be seen. Jonah played the piano and starts singing with tears in his eyes.

_Waking up I see that everything is OK_

_The first time in my life and now it's so great_

_Slowing down I look around and I am so amazed _

_I think about the little things that make life great_

_I wouldn't change a thing about it _

_This is the best feeling_

_This innocence is brilliant _

_I hope that it will stay _

_This moment is perfect _

_Please don't go away _

_I need you now _

_And I'll hold on to it _

_Don't you let it pass you by_

_I found a place so safe, not a single tear _

_The first time in my life and now it's so clear_

_Feel calm, I belong, I'm so happy here _

_It's so strong and now I let myself be sincere _

_I wouldn't change a thing about it _

_This is the best feeling _

_This innocence is brilliant _

_I hope that it will stay _

_This moment is perfect _

_Please don't go away _

_I need you now _

_And I'll hold on to it _

_Don't you let it pass you by_

_It's a state of bliss, you think you're dreaming _

_It's the happiness inside that you're feeling _

_It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry _

_It's a state of bliss, you think you're dreaming _

_It's the happiness inside that you're feeling _

_It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry _

_It's so beautiful it makes you wanna cry _

_This innocence is brilliant_

_Makes you wanna cry_

_This innocence is brilliant_

_Please don't go away _

_Cause I need you now _

_And I'll hold on to it_

_Don't you let it pass you by _

_This innocence is brilliant _

_I hope that it will stay _

_This moment is perfect _

_Please don't go away _

_I need you now _

_And I'll hold on to it _

_Don't you let it pass you by..._

_This innocence is brilliant _

_I hope that it will stay _

_This moment is perfect _

_Please don't go away _

_I need you now _

_And I'll hold on to it _

_Don't you let it pass you by..._

After hearing Jonah sing the song, Jojo's eyes welled up in tears as well and he didn't know that he could sing that good. Jonah finished up the song with only a single tear and a choked sob and a sniffle that could relate to his damaged innocence as a kid. He pressed the 'stop' button, because he recorded himself in it and as soon as it stopped, he turned it off and just laid his head down on the keyboard and started crying.

Jojo quietly went up to his room to see if he's okay. He slowly puts his hand on his shoulder and Jonah could feel Jojo's prescence behind him. He looked up and asked, "How long were you standing there?"

Jojo answered with a choked sob, "Long enough."

Then, Jojo looked at the song and took a look at it and knew that this was something that could relate to him and that innocence is the one thing that could never be taken away, but Jonah's innocence was passing him by when Paul showed up in his life. He asked, "You wrote this?"

"I wrote it when I woke up this morning. It just feels like my innocence has been broken because of Paul. About last night, what Paul said about you was wrong. You are a good friend."

"I know I'm a good friend to you. Not only that, you're like my brother."

That comment touched Jonah's heartstrings and asked, "You really consider me as your brother?"

"And your brothers too."

"I never thought of it that way."

"I think about it every day."

"It's nice that you really care about me. I've never actually had any friends like that."

Jojo wiped his tear and said, "You have now."

Jojo gave Jonah a hug and cried on his shoulder. He embraced the hug and suddenly let go and Jojo asked, "How would you feel if you and your brothers took you in our house?"

"Nothing could make me happier. At least I wouldn't have to worry about Paul anymore."

Jojo chuckled and said, "That song of yours is amazing. I write songs as well in my little notebook."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I write these whenever I feel angry or sad. Whatever's making me feel bad, I just write it on paper."

"That's awesome."

Jojo sighed heavily and said, "Well, I just wanted to see if you're okay."

"Thank you."

Jojo stands up, leaves the room and said, "I'll meet you in school."

"Okay."

He left the room, feeling good about himself and as soon as he walked out of the door, Jonah put away his stuff in his closet and got himself ready for school. A couple of minutes later, he and his brothers were ready to go as they left for school. Jonah left home with his brothers to school that day was a sign that will turn out great, hopefully. With a friend like Jojo, it's no doubt that he considers him his best friend.

* * *

Is that sweet or what? They're really good friends. The song was 'Innocence' from Avril Lavigne. I've been hearing the song on YouTube a lot, so that struck an idea with me. Hope ya'll likey! Stick around for more!


	13. Music Class

What will happen if Jonah and Travis took the same class as Jojo? Wonder no more...

* * *

Chapter 13: Music Class

As the afternoon went by, Jojo went across the hallways of Whoville High and into his 4th period class; Music. Jojo loved the class and has shared the same period with Caitlyn, Misty, Cody, Marcus and Mike. As soon as he got there and took his seat, he sees Jonah sitting in front of his seat. He was surprised to know that he can have the same period as he is. Jonah turned around and saw Jojo there, which made him overjoyed.

"You're in this period, too?" asked Jonah.

"Yeah. It's my favorite part of school. The most favorite part of the semester." Jojo answered.

"I had my schedule changed this morning, but I'm still in first period with you."

"This is gonna be cool."

"I know, right? Me and Travis are in the same elective too."

Jojo turned around and saw Travis sitting next to the other row of the class and Travis looks at him and gave him a wave. Jojo turned to Jonah and smiled at him. Jonah then said, "Travis has always wanted to express his ability in his songwriting and also with his music ability and actually learn it. How cool is that?"

"Extremely. My best friends has the same period here as well."

All of a sudden, Mike, Caitlyn, Marcus, Cody and Marcus came in the doors as well, each taking their seats, when by surprise, sees Jonah and Travis in the same room. Mike was surprised when he saw Jonah there and asked, "You got this class?"

"Yeah, it's a good thing that we like music a lot." Jonah said.

"I don't blame ya. My family is pretty musical." Cody said.

"It has a musical background and our brother, Alex, was totally a rock for music." Mike said.

"Who's Alex?" asked Travis.

"He was our older brother. He's always been cool with us and we always look up to him."

"What happened to him?" asked Jonah.

"The past year has been difficult. He died after someone ran him over with a car, because he was late for a meeting." Cody explained.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's cool. Jojo's been an awesome friend to Alex as well and we've been friends to him since then. After Alex died, our friendship has grown more stronger than ever."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Jojo's been like family rather than a friend to us. It really means a lot." Mike said.

Jojo chuckled and said, "You guys are special, too."

"Do you guys have a tissue? I need a moment." Misty said.

Mike scoffed and said, "You're faking it, I know it."

"How am I faking it?"

"Your mocking crying voice."

"Well...I just got a little emotional."

"Oh, puh-leeze! That was a lot faker than when my dad tried to get a fake nose ring."

"And one of his nose wasn't even real." Cody said.

That stunned most of them and Mike asked, "Seriously?"

"You didn't know?"

"Okay, now I'm losing my appetite." Misty said.

"Well, pin a rose on your nose."

"I'll pin a needle on that brain of yours. How about that?"

Jonah chuckled and asked, "Are they always like this?"

"Nah, they usually argue." Jojo answered.

"Hey, you guys. Music teacher alert!" Caitlyn exclaimed.

Misty and Mike dropped the subject and focused on the arrival of their music teacher. As he came in, he said, "Good afternoon, class."

"Hey."

"What's up?"

"How's it hangin', teach?" asked Cody.

The music teacher looked at Cody and said, "Great. And it's 'Mr. Hanningway.'

"Sorry, sir."

He cleared his throat and said, "Today, we're gonna learn to express ourselves with our instruments. Each instrument is special in its own way and it's the perfect opportunity to let out all of your emotions. When you play them, you can definitely feel the music growing inside those minds of yours."

He hands out the violin and said, "Misty, show us your violin masterpiece."

Misty got up from her seat as the teacher handed her the violin. Mike groaned softly and said, "This is gonna suck."

Then, she started playing the violin and plays a tune that she hopes might touch anyone's heartstrings...well except for Mike. After only four minutes, she completed her concerto violin playing on a good note as he closed it with a slow chord. The students were clapping and she took her bow. Then, Mike started booing at her and said, "You suck!"

"Mr. McKinney! How dare you boo this young woman's fine masterpiece?" asked the music teacher.

"Seriously? Masterpiece, sure. Fine? Come on. She couldn't even play electric guitar, let alone a violin that can only torture every student for this."

"It's okay, Mr. Hanningway. He doesn't bother me one bit." Misty said.

"So you say."

"Thank you, Ms. Kirkpatrick."

"Yeah, thanks for finally giving me nightmares." Mike sneered.

"That's enough. If you think you can do better than her, why don't you show us what you got."

"Gladly, Otis."

Mr. Hanningway was puzzled and asked, "Since when do you call me 'Otis'?"

"In the office."

Mike got in front of the class and started playing guitar. He played a rock song and started to make a punk-rock feel into it as he managed to make it more heavy rock influenced as possible by hitting all the chords really high and then, he finished it off with a sustained chord. Then, after that, he closes it off with a rock sign on his hand. Then, he looked at Misty and said, "Top that!"

Misty ignored it and didn't say anything about it. Mike asked, "Does it not impress you, Mr. Hanningway?"

"Actually, it didn't. It sounded like a meat grinder that's stuck and makes this strange sound when you try to grind the meat, but it ends up broken. Thank you, Mr. McKinney."

Mike scoffed and thought that he sounded great. Then, Misty looked at him and asked, "Who sucked now?"

"All right. Mr. Jojo McDodd. Please show us your amazing guitar talent."

Jojo gets up from his seat and Cody was excited to hear him play guitar. He got to a stool and started playing a soft melody. He strums the guitar and plays an instrumental of a classic love song. He's hoping that it might touch someone's heartstrings a little bit. After about four and a half minutes, he began finishing it slowly and kept his eyes closed the entire time. He finished it with a slow, soft strum and most of the students were emotional that he plays it so well and they were brought to tears, including Travis and Jonah.

Mr. Hanningway completely felt overwhelmed by it and said, "Mr. McDodd, you have always made the relationship between you and this guitar grow stronger and you achieve greatness everytime you play and it also touched a lot of hearts, including mine."

Jojo smiled and said, "Thank you, sir."

Jojo returned to his seat and then, Mr. Hanningway asked Jonah to see which part of his talents he can partake in the instruments. He went to the piano and starts playing a sad song. As he pounded the keys, he definitely released all the pain he's dealt with his stepfather and plans to express it by music. Jojo knew that the piano was a way to release all the angry feelings he's had to deal with and Jonah was driven on sharing his pain to everyone. After finishing the piece, Jonah felt totally emotional over it. And he went out of the piano and into his seat. The room fell in silence and in amazement with Jonah's talents. Mr. Hanningway asked, "Who taught you piano?"

"My mom. She taught me everything until she died. When I'm playing the piano, I can finally release all the pain and suffering and sorrow I felt after she died as well as other negative things in my life...like being beaten by my stepfather." Jonah answered, reluctantly.

"It's an amazing way to unleash all of that."

"Thank you."

Travis came out and picked up the guitar and started playing. He played a ballad that he's been hearing and wanted to make his own version of it. As he started strumming, all of the emotions were pouring out and Travis expressed it in more ways than one. Jojo was ultra-surprised that Travis actually played the guitar really well and that all of the feelings he had were now shared with everyone. He quickly finished the song with a slow strum and everyone was blown away from it.

Mr. Hanningway was totally speechless as Travis went back to his seat. He could tell that it really brought him in a state of amazement towards him. A few hours passed by and as the bell rung, everyone left the room until Mr. Hanningway told Travis and Jonah to have a word with them.

They sat down and Mr. Hanningway said, "You've only been here for today and already you have some music talent coming out of you. That got me impressed as well."

"My mom taught us everything about music and she taught us every instrument, including the guitar and the piano." Travis said.

"I think you'll fit in this music class just fine. Your brothers have been taking second period here and it was nothing I've ever seen or heard before in all my years of teaching music."

"We've got the music bug, basically. We just can't stop expressing our feelings and we release them in paper and stuff like that. It's kinda like therapy." Jonah said.

"All students love self-expression when it comes to music and that kind of talent will take you both far."

"We've always thought about being musicians."

"Keep that in mind. If you keep practicing, maybe all of this will happen in life."

Jonah definitely felt like music is a deep passion for him and he should pursue it instead of sports. Mr. Hanningway said, "Hope to see you tomorrow."

"We will."

Both Jonah and Travis walked out of the room and Travis turned around and said, "Thanks for talking with us."

"Thank you for coming here."

Jonah and Travis left the room, feeling confident that the music class has made a huge impact on both of them. Here they saw Jojo and the others waiting for them outside. Mike asked, "So, how was it?"

"It was great. Mr. Hanningway loved having us here." Jonah said.

"I like the music class." Travis said.

"It's the best period ever and you feel like you're in a place where you can really release your feelings, musically." Jojo said.

"It definitely feels that way."

"I love taking the class because I love music and all. Plus, I also like to make my own instruments."

"How do you make them?" asked Jonah.

"In my observatory."

Just then, Sam, Hawk and Cyrus walked in behind them and overheard that Jojo has an observatory. Cyrus asked, "You have an observatory?"

Jojo turned around and said, "Yeah, I was about to show your brothers there."

"You never told us you have an observatory." Sam said.

"Yeah, he did." Travis said.

"Oh, yeah. That's right. I forgot you have an observatory. Where is my head?" asked Hawk.

"Maybe it's not screwed on tight enough."

"Zip it."

"By the way, I loved your violin performance, Misty. It sounded awesome." Jonah said.

"Thanks. At least someone is in love with my violin playing." Misty said.

Mike scoffs and said, "That's just dumb luck. The teacher was like sucking up to ya, because he didn't want to really think you actually suck at this instrument."

"He said I did good."

"He has to say it. He's a teacher, duh!"

"But he was serious when he said the best performance said, duh!"

"Oh, whatever!"

"Are they always like this?" asked Hawk.

"Nah, usually they just bicker." Cody answered.

"Show them the observatory." Caitlyn said.

"What's it like there?" asked Sam.

"Follow me. It's pretty awesome there." Jojo said, as they lead them the way to the observatory.

* * *

The observatory scene is coming up soon! Stick around!


	14. The Observatory

And here's where they laid eyes on the observatory...

* * *

Chapter 14: The Observatory

A couple of minutes later, they went to the back of the other side of the McDodd house and Jojo followed them over to where his observatory is. Jonah, Sam, Cyrus, Hawk and Travis all gasped in amazement as they saw the little tower in front of the house in a distance. Jonah saw Jojo climbing some steps and stopped him for a sec. He asked, "How do you get from there?"

Jojo chuckled, "Let me show ya."

He went on the steps and climbed on the little basket, where he opens the umbrella and it takes him to a wooden plank, then he sits down on a unicycle, going back while stretching the elastic band, then pulled the lever, which made the stretch band go in another direction and catapulted him to the top of the observatory and then, he jumped out of there and walked up the steps and stops for a sec. He turns around and sees his friends down there. He asked, "Is that cool or what?"

Jonah's jaw dropped down and he was speechless. Travis was more shocked than Jonah was and asked, "How do we get up there?"

"They always bring it back, but I've got a better solution."

Then, then another basket comes forth in front of them and it's a medium sized one that can fit about three people. Jonah looked extremely nervous and wanted to step back, but he couldn't miss seeing what Jojo does there, so he slowly walks in the basket along with Travis and Cyrus. Travis was shaking a little as the basket slowly takes them up to the steps of the observatory.

"We're gonna die, aren't we?" asked Travis.

As soon as it lifts them up in the steps, the door opens and they all walk out of there, standing where Jojo's standing. Jojo chuckled and said, "Just invented it a few weeks ago."

"I was afraid that we would die for some reason."

"I've tested it numerous times. Trust me, when you get on it, it sorta makes it a lot faster to get there. So, death is not a possiblity."

"I guess you're right."

Then, it picks up Caitlyn, Hawk and Sam along the way. Sam chuckled and said, "How come you're not afraid of this?"

Caitlyn giggled and said, "If Jojo made it, there's no problems."

"How do you know?"

"I trust him. He's my friend."

Jojo blushed a little and Travis can see that in front of him. He asked, "You love her, don't ya?"

Jojo scoffs and said, "We're just friends."

"Sure you are."

A quick second later, Mike, Cody, Marcus and Misty come off the ride and Misty feels something in her leg and it's Mike. She groaned and said, "Okay, Mike. You can let go of my leg now."

Mike opens his eyes and sees Misty's foot. He quickly shuddered and stood up and got out of the basket. Cody chuckled and asked, "You were scared, weren't you?"

Mike didn't want to admit it and said, "I wasn't that scared."

"How does grabbing my leg for dear life not scared?" asked Misty.

"Well, I panicked a little, but I wanted to look danger in the eye and your foot is a good example."

"Whatever."

"So, now that we're all here, you're about to witness something creative and so awesome in my observatory." Jojo said.

"Which door do we take?" asked Sam.

"This little door."

They see the little door on the bottom of the big door and he enters inside, along with the others coming in behind him. Sam, Travis, Jonah, Cyrus and Hawk look around and they're in total and complete awe of this observatory. Sam gasped in shock and asked, "You made all these?"

"Yep. Every nook and cranny known to every who in Whoville." Jojo said.

"What do you do with these things anyway?" asked Cyrus.

"Make music instruments. I draw some things from the observatory and see what kind of instruments would I make. When I would come here, I start with it right away. It's really amazing to see what you drew on a sheet of paper and then, built it and make it into a reality."

"You surprise us."

Jonah looks at the golden horn and asked, "What's this?"

Jojo turned around and walked towards him and said, "This is one of my inventions. It's pretty much well-known."

"Well known how?" asked Travis.

"I used that thing during the Horton incident where I climbed up to one of the buildings, look at the sky and then I said the famous words as loud as I could."

"What was that word?"

"Yopp!"

"It's true. Jojo definitely saved the entire town of Whoville with that word and his dad, of course." Mike said.

"How come we never saw it happen?" asked Jonah.

"You weren't here when this happened."

"So, who's Horton, anyway?"

"Horton's an elephant. Neither of us can see him, but we can hear him with that old record player speaker that's been attached in the balcony of my dad's office in city hall. He still keeps in touch with him." Jojo said.

"That's awesome."

"How do you make all those sounds here?" asked Hawk.

"I'll show ya."

He went over to where all the instruments have bene invented and decided to play them and while he did that, he got on one of the kites, then grabbed all the bells and falls to the yarn balls, pushes them, gets on top of one of them and then falls off, grabbing on to the string, pulls the lever down where little metal balls were sliding off the stairs and he slid down the rails too.

Mike, Caitlyn, Cody, Marcus and Misty were amazed as well as Jonah, Travis, Sam, Cyrus and Hawk for watching everything come alive. Then, Jojo bounces up and into the basket. He grabbed Jonah's hand and then, as he pulled the lever, they reach up to the higher parts of the observatory and Jonah was on the ground as Jojo cranks up the another level and the roof of the observatory opens up and sees the entire sky there.

The others were left speechless and Jonah could not believe his eyes when that roof opened. Jojo got down on the ground and asked, "What do you think?"

"It is amazing. That's why you come out here all the time?" asked Jonah.

"All the time. It's like a second home and a safe place for me to get away from everything, including my dad."

"Such an awesome place. I am definitely coming back here."

"So are we!"

Jojo looks down and sees the others down there. He chuckled and got the basket down and Travis and Hawk were next. Jojo said, "Pull the red lever."

Travis pulled the lever and it rose them up to where they're at and they saw it unfold. It was something they have never seen before in their lives-a skyview of Whoville.

"Hey! Whay about us?" asked Cyrus.

The basket was brought down and Cyrus, Sam and Mike were going along for the ride. When they got there, it was a sight they have never seen before. Cyrus chuckled and said, "Jojo, this is the best place ever."

"Thanks."

Then, Marcus and Cody were next and Misty and Caitlyn were the last to go and looked at the entire view together. They felt the wind blowing through their fur as they looked in the air. Jonah chuckled and said, "Thank you...for showing us your getaway."

Jojo smiled and said, "No probs."

"Think we can come over, so we can see what you do?" asked Hawk.

"Anytime."

They looked at the sky until Jojo cranks the lever and the roof of the observatory was closed and they were surprised. Misty said, "So, that's how you close it."

"That's what I was gonna say." Cyrus said.

"Well, you guys have seen my observatory and it was awesome." Jojo said.

"Of course."

"How long do you stay there?" asked Jonah.

"Until dinner or at least when it's time to go to bed or something like that."

"Sneaky, aren't you?"

Jojo chuckled and said, "It's a getaway."

"I understand."

"So, when we come out, how do we get down from here?"

"We land on the ground." Cody said.

"On the ground?" asked Travis, nervously.

"Yep."

"Don't worry. Jojo always makes sure we land safely."

As they got out, he brought in a trampoline and lands it on the ground and Jonah was the first one to jump down. He gulped hard and then, he took a plunge and jumped out and landed on the trampoline and then, got down on the ground. He looked up and did an 'okay' sign on his fingers. Travis was up next and he seemed a bit nervous. He sighed heavily and said, "The things I do for friends..."

He jumps down and lands on the trampoline and then, to the ground. He chuckled in relief and said, "I'm okay."

"Duh, dude. We're cool."

Hawk, Cyrus and Sam jumped all together and they went in the trampoline and back to the ground. Sam chuckled and said, "Dude, that was awesome!"

"Thanks, Jojo!" exclaimed Cyrus.

"No probs. See you guys tomorrow." Jojo said.

They all waved 'bye' to him as they walked away. Caitlyn, Misty, Mike, Cody and Marcus were saying bye to him too as they jumped out of the trampoline and landed on the ground. Jojo looked down and chuckled softly as the wind blew through his hair and then, he went in the the observatory, with a smile on his face.

* * *

Seemed pretty cool. But as soon as they get home...let's just say it will end up in a huge rage for Paul. Find out next time!


	15. Disappointment Rage

This chapter will put out a huge dramatic edge. It will make you wonder what's gonna happen. Well, the answers are all right here, and please believe me, it's gonna be intense!

* * *

Chapter 15: Disappointment Rage

A few hours later, back at home, Jonah was strumming his Who-Guitar to sort of take it easy for a while. After the music class, it seems as though he would pursue music over sports, something his stepdad was trying to push him into something that could literally pressure him. He stopped for a while, sighed heavily and just thought about what would actually happen if he could tell Paul about choosing music instead of sports, like he's worried about what the reaction he will get. Knowing him, he'd beat the crap out of him.

He continued on playing his Who-Guitar, hoping that he can tell him whenever the time is right. Until...

"JONAH!"

He abruptly stops playing and it was interrputed by Paul's voice. He shuddered silently and he puts down the guitar, hops out of the bed, walks over to the room and asked, "Y-Yeah?"

"Get down here, stupid!" Paul shouts.

He walks silently down the stairs, standing in front of Paul, looking incredibly ticked off at him. He asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Why all of a sudden are you taking music class?"

He knew the subject was up. His lowered his eyes down on the ground and replies, "My schedule changed."

"What kind of nimwit could change your freakin' schedule? We've only been here a week and already your schedule changes?"

"The prinicipal changed it."

"I'm gonna go to that school and force him to put you back in Physical Ed."

"I actually hate P.E."

Hearing this made Paul froze and it made him even more mad as he slowly turned to Jonah and asked, "What...did you say?"

"I hated P.E. since I first came here. I was sitting the bleachers with my brothers every day, cause we're not all sports people or fitness people."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing. You're gonna give up your dreams of being an athlete into this music?"

"That 'athletic' dream was your dream. Not mine. I hated sports!"

Paul slapped him in the face and shouted, "That's a lie! A BIG FAT LIE!"

"I'm not lying, dad! I don't want to pursue your dreams and I hate sports and I hated being treated like crap because of you!"

"Watch who you're talking to!"

"I can say whatever I want to say! It's a done deal. I'm taking music class!"

Paul was seething so hard and said, "This is all that young Who's fault-Jojo! Did he bring you into it?"

"No, my schedule changed and he never talked me into it. He was in the same class as me, but he never talked me into it."

"LIAR!"

Paul punched Jonah hard and shoved him to the wall. He comes at him and kicks the table around and then, Jonah started to run, but Paul threw everything at him to get his senses. Then, he runs towards him, lunged at his neck and grabs on it in a dangerous rage. He rolls over him, beats him down with punches and he's still strangling him. Jonah suddenly can't breathe, because Paul was grabbing his neck so hard, it's almost like he was dying.

Then, Paul lets go of his neck and looks at him with both disappointment and disgust. He backs away from him angry-like as he watched Jonah trying to gasp for air, but all he could do is just walk away and say, "You are useless. I don't even know who you are anymore. You're the most useless, stupid piece of trash that has ever threw off the face of the earth. I hope you die."

Then, he walks into his room, leaving Jonah gasping for air, helpless. He tried to get up and ran out of the house, running away. He reaches over to the McDodd residence, but his oxygen was almost starting to run out. He panted furiously, which made it even worse. He knocks on the door, but all of a sudden, he collapses in front of the door, choking for air. The door suddenly opens and it's Ned coming out and before his very eyes, he sees Jonah gasping for air.

"Help...me..."

Ned was horrified to see him laying down on the ground without any air coming in. He picks him up and takes him inside the house and then, as soon as he gets upstairs, Jonah's eyes were bulging out in unconsciousness. Ned sees his eyes closed and he suddenly panicks. Sally comes out of the room and sees Ned carrying Jonah. She looks at him, concerned like and asked, "What's wrong with Jonah?"

"I don't know. He looks unconscious."

He puts Jonah down and sees that something is wrong with him. She asked, "Think something happened?"

Ned didn't even bother to know who did it. He knows who it was. He angrily said, "I bet it was his stepdad."

"His stepdad? What are you talking about?" asked Sally.

"I know he had something to do with this, Sal."

"How do you know that he could even do something like this?"

"I saw what happened to him a few nights before. His stepdad was hurting him and so did his brothers. They couldn't see us, but I can tell that he's traumatized by it."

"Mr. McDodd!"

Then, they both turned around and saw Travis frantically running up the stairs, looking totally panic-stricken. He frantically said, "I saw my stepdad...he tried to kill my brother and I saw him runaway and I though he was gonna die and..."

Ned held his shoulders and said, "Calm down, Travis. Calm down. Take a deep breath, okay?"

Travis took a deep breath and tried to calm down and Ned asked, in a calm voice, "What happened to Jonah?"

Travis looked totally scared and said, "I saw Paul...grabbing his neck at him really hard and he choked him. He can't breathe."

Ned felt completely horrified of all this and Sally was shocked to hear something like this. She said, "I don't believe what I'm hearing. How could he do something like that?"

"Paul always gets mad at us for no reason and all the stress and anger turn into ultimate violence. He takes it out on us." Travis answered.

"Sally, can you give him some water?" asked Ned.

Thinking fast, Sally got downstairs to the kitchen to get some water and suddenly, he heard a raspy breath coming from behind Ned and Travis. They slowly turn around and it was Jonah. He moaned heavily and started coughing weird-like and violently. Travis quickly ran up to him and Ned asked, "Is he okay?"

"I don't know."

Jonah slowly got up and walked slowly and stopped into a wall, looking like he's been traumatized. He looked up and saw Ned standing there. He asked, "Are you okay, Jonah?"

He blinked twice and Jonah groggily answered, "No..."

Then, Ned can see Jonah looking like he was gonna throw up and Ned quickly took him to the bathroom and just vomited on the toilet. For Travis, it was a disturbing sight to see...his own brother puking. Sally quickly returned upstairs and saw Ned in the bathroom with Jonah, regurgitating. Jonah moans heavily and said, "I need some water."

Sally quickly gave him the water and starts drinking it. After he swallows it, he wipes off his mouth and starts panting. Then, he looks at Travis, looking horrified and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you losing air. I was so scared that I was worried that you would die."

"Paul really lost it, didn't he?" asked Ned.

"Really hard. He just bruised me and choked me so hard."

"Travis, can you call Jojo?"

"I can send him a text."

"Where is Jojo?" asked Jonah.

"He's at the observatory."

Travis sent him a frantic text to Jojo to his phone, and he send it to him. Sally and Ned picked up Jonah and took him downstairs to the living room and puts him on the couch. Jonah took a deep breath and he exhaled heavily, then he grabbed his neck, wheezing softly. Then, he sits up and shakes his head a little bit, hoping that he's okay.

Travis was mortified to see him like this. Jonah looked at Travis and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm so worried about you taking a beating from Paul. When I saw him choke you, I thought you were dead."

"Why didn't you come help me?"

"If Paul sees me in fear, he'll do the same thing to me as he did to you."

"Good point."

Ned and Sally came in and Sally said, "It's a good thing you came here when you did."

"You told us about what happened in a situation like this. It takes guts to do that." Ned said.

"It does?" asked Travis.

"Yes."

Suddenly, the door opens and closes quickly and it's Jojo, looking worried. He said, "I came as soon as I got the text."

Jojo looks at Jonah, moaning in agony and Jojo was shocked to hear what happened. He turned to his parents and asked, "What's wrong with Jonah?"

"Paul choked him." Travis said.

Jojo turns around and sees Travis sitting there, looking panic-stricken. He asked, "How long have you been here?"

"Long enough."

"Tell us what happened." Sally said.

Jonah took a deep breath and said, "Well, the reason why he did that was I told him I took music class, because my schedule changed. He was disappointed that I took music class over P.E. and then, he lost it. He just lost it. He wanted me to pursue in sports, but that was his dream to put me in it. I took music class over P.E. and he went beserk. Then, he lunged at my throat and beat me down and threw me with everything in the house. It was so horrible. Then, after he choked me, I couldn't breathe. I felt my life was flashing before my eyes and he called me, 'useless, stupid excuse for a stepson' and also 'piece of trash' and ended with 'I hope you die.' That was brutal and it felt like it stabbed me in the heart."

Sally was horrified to hear something like that and Ned covered his face, because he was totally upset that Paul could do something like this for no reason. He sighed heavily and said, "We are genuinely sorry that this happened to you and we are sorry that you had to see that."

"At times, I would often cry at night because something terrible might happen to us and Paul would do it to us. All five of us don't feel safe there."

Jojo blinked his eyes and held on Jonah's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry that he did this to my best friend."

Jonah looked into Jojo's eyes and tears were coming out of his face as he heard 'best friend' again. He said, "I've never had someone care for me that much."

"How do you mean?" asked Ned.

"Well, when we first moved to Whoville, we're afraid that people would judge us for who we are and they wouldn't be friends of us, cause we're different and they'd call us 'emo' and they wouldn't care if our stepdad abused us, because we'd be the laughingstock of the school."

"What Jonah's saying is that we're pretty much outcasts and nobody would care about us in a situation like this...until Jojo came." Travis said.

"We would care about every situation that you're in. It's been a few days since I've known you, but I'm sorry to see you and your brothers in this situation and our hearts hurts for you." Ned said.

"There must be something we can do about this." Jojo said.

"Forget it. It's hopeless. Paul is a monster and we can't get him mad." Jonah said.

"Well, if there's anything we can do, just let us know and maybe we can help." Sally said.

Jonah and Travis looked at both Ned and Sally and then Jojo and they feel like they're angels helping them. Travis started crying softly and Jonah hugged him tightly as he cried in his shoulders. Ned got totally misty-eyed and Jojo said to them, "I wish you guys were my brothers."

"So do we." Jonah said.

"I feel the same way." Travis said, tearfully.

Ned, Sally and Jojo reached in and hugged both Jonah and Travis. Ned starts thinking that those boys shouldn't have to live in this situation and he hopes to do something to make it stop and also to get away from Paul. He looks at Jojo and sees that he's lucky to have friends like them. Inside and outside of him, he's deeply proud of Jojo for being there for them when needed. That makes him a better friend.

* * *

Was that dramatic or what? Good thing he got some help, though. Stay tuned for more!


	16. Bullying Memories

Reminiscing bullying problems before they moved to Whoville...

* * *

Chapter 16: Bullying Memories

A couple of hours later, Jonah went back home with Travis, feeling totally relieved, but also suffering from the abuse that Paul caused. They went upstairs and entered in their rooms. While Jonah was in his room, he laid flat on his bed, just looking at the ceiling. It was like the world has suddenly froze and that it can't be thawed, because of total sorrow that he's dealt with.

Minutes later, he's reverting back to where he got bullied in school back in Whereville, a memory that definitely became the most horrific and most likely traumatic moment that he's ever experienced.

Jonah's eyes blinked twice as a few tears were streaming out of his face, just remembering all the kids laughing and taunting him, nonstop.

* * *

_Jonah walked by the Whereville High School in the hallways, where a lot of kids were giving him a hard time, but they didn't even care as they went on poking fun at him._

_"Hey look, guys! It's the emo from down under!"_

_"Let's all try and communicate with it."_

_"My life sucks. What is happy? I am an emo freak who is the last freak of all mankind."_

_They all laughed at him and pointed to what he wears. It was all too much for Jonah as he walked away without saying a word. Then, one kid comes from behind and shouts, "Dude, it must suck to be you!"  
_

_He got away very quickly, then some girls were doing the same thing as one said, "Well, look who showed up. The little emo that looks like a wimpy shrimp."_

_"No girl would ever fall for you."_

"You are a hopeless, wasted piece of trash. Why would you even be in this school?"

_All the girls laughed at him and Jonah felt totally humiliated and one of the girls threw a banana at him, and he fell down on the floor, leaving all students pointing at him and laughing at him and jeering at him for no reason. He felt completely scared and that he got up and run away from the students. _

_Then, one person stopped Jonah and shoved him in the face and said, "You are a NOBODY!"  
_

_He shoved him through the locker and he managed to get away from him. He said, "Yeah, that's right! Run, you big emo crybaby!"  
_

_Jonah looks around and there's mean students here, mean students there and mean students everywhere. He couldn't take so much of it and started running through the halls, while all the students poke fun at him._

_Then, he was bombarded by a bunch of girls that hate Jonah's personality and one slapped him in the face and the other girls laughed at him. Then, one got on his face and said, "Why don't you just kill yourself?"_

_The girls left, laughing at him as they walked away. He started running away and hid himself in the boys' room, where it was mostly empty. He got into the mirror near the sinks and his hair was unkempt and messed up and he looked at himself and tears filled his eyes. He blinked a few times as the tears rolled down his face and whispered, "Why can't they just leave me alone?"_

_He went to the other side of the bathroom, laid his back against the wall and sat down, curled himself in a little ball and just bursted out crying in total and complete misery._

* * *

Jonah felt that he was a loner in the world and he can still hear the kids' taunting and teasing echo through his head. Whereville High was the hurtful thing he ever experienced with a sea of a million students constantly tormenting him for no reason at all. He laid his head down a pillow and started crying, hiding his face in it.

A few tears were falling from his face and asked, "Why couldn't they stop?"

Travis was in his room as well, looking at the ceiling, feeling ultimately depressed about both the abuse he suffered with Paul and also for being bullied when he was 13, back at Whereville Middle School, refer to it as the worst time of his life. It was completely devastating for him to deal with the older kids giving him a hard time, even though he's different from others.

He can still hear the teasing and taunting in his head and he covered his head to try to ignore it, but it grew louder and it was difficult to forget about it.

* * *

_13-year-old Travis was walking towards the hallways of Whereville Middle School, where some 14-year-old girls looked at him in a disgusting look and said, "Hey, Travie. Where'd you get the shirt? Did the emo fairy sent you a look that made you feel more grosser?"_

_They started laughing and Travis walked away from all of it. Then, he girl threw a snow cone at his head. He removed it from his head and puts it in the trash can and resumed walking. As soon as he came to the cafeteria, some boys were going at him and pushed him to the floor._

_"Hey, guys. Look! It's Travis, the king of all emo freaks! You and your brothers are nothing but douches."_

_"Just leave me alone." Travis said._

_"Now he says to 'leave us alone'. You're pathetic, Mosley!"_

_"Listen, kid. We do not condone with freaks like you."_

"I'm not a freak!"

_"You're pretty much an ugly freak!"_

_Then, one of the boys poured some water on his clothes and splashed it on his face. Then, some of them splattered cream pie in his face. All of a sudden, one poured fruit punch all over him. That caught the attention of other students, looking at Travis, like he's a hot mess. All the students could do is point and laugh at him, which made Travis completely hurt. He backed away and started running away from them._

_As soon as he went in the hallways, some other boys ganged up on him and carried him to the trash. Travis was kicking and screaming, just desperately trying to escape, but help never came. One of the boys opened up the trash and Travis tried hard to release himself from them, but the boys grabbed him tightly and just threw him in the trash and left the lid closed._

_"Hope you like to stink, Trav!"_

_All the boys left and Travis popped out of the trash, looking dirty and trashy, with a banana peel on his hair and some gum on the other side. He hopped out of the trash can and proceeded to sit on a tree, just crying and hiding his face, so no one could see him like this._

* * *

Travis dealt with some bad hands at that school, but he also dealt with the abuse from his stepfather and it was always the worst thing that could ever happened to him, even more so than seeing Jonah almost being choked to death earlier today.

His eyes were filled up with tears, as he curled himself up in a little ball and started crying. As the last-born and youngest of the triplets, it seems as though Travis felt like he was nothing, based on what he is, but he's different from everyone else just like his brothers, but those memories of being bullied or witnessing one of his brothers bullied, it felt like it was something that he couldn't stomach to see it.

He sobbed a number amount of times and and rubbed his eyes from the tears and sniffled a few times, because he was choked up about the traumatic memory of being bullied. With a few tears streaming down his face, he just needed to let out his frustrations and sorrow of being the victim of bullying by song. He picked up his Who-Guitar and starts strumming a sad song, which he wrote when he was in his lowest point in his life and starts singing it, tearfully.

_Staring out into the world across the street  
You hate the way your life turned out to be  
He's pulling up in the driveway and you don't make a sound  
Cause you always learn to hold the things you want to say  
You're always going to be afraid_

_There's only hate  
There's only tears  
There's only pain  
There is no love here  
Oh so what will you do?  
There's only lies  
There's only fears  
There's only pain  
There is no love here_

_Broken down like a mirror smashed to peices  
You learned the hard way to shut your mouth and smile  
If these walls could talk they would have so much to say  
Cause everytime you fight the scars are gonna heal but there never gonna go away_

_There's only hate  
There's only tears  
There's only pain  
There is no love here  
Oh so what will you do?  
There's only lies  
There's only fears  
There's only pain  
There is no love here  
Oh no So what will you do?_

_Your falling, your screaming  
Your stuck in the same old nightmare  
He's lying, your crying  
There's nothing left to salvage  
Kick the door cause this is over  
Get me out of here_

_(Kick the door)  
_

_There's only hate  
There's only tears  
There's only pain  
There is no love here  
Oh so what will you do?  
There's only lies  
There's only fears  
There's only pain  
There is no love here  
Tell me what will you do?  
There's only hate  
There's only tears  
There's only pain  
There is no love here._

After he finished it, he just felt the tears flow out of his face and before he could even put the guitar away, in comes Jojo, who's standing near the door. He sees him come inside and Travis asked, "How long were you standing?'

"Long enough. Are you okay?" asked Jojo.

Travis sighed and said, "No."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"I don't know. I was just-I used to be bullied a lot back in Whereville, because I'm so different and they used to call me 'emo', 'shrimp', 'freak' and whatnot. That really hurt me a lot and they don't really care about it. Why couldn't they just leave us alone?"

Jojo could definitely tell that Travis has been bullied before they even met. Jojo asked, "How old were you?"

"13. When I first got bullied, I was probably around 9 or 10, but in middle school...it was terrible. Being bullied by your stepfather is one thing, but other people in school. It's just horrible for me to even endure it."

"I understand how you feel. I get bullied a lot and most of it revolves around how I look, my dad being mayor and everything. I didn't want to deal with it, but I was ignoring it. At times, it gets me down and I just take it out on paper. I just write songs about it whenever I feel sad or angry or anything that makes me feel bad or I could just go the the observatory and stay there until I feel okay, but often times, I'm not so okay."

Travis looked at him and he said, "I never knew everyone was like that. Why do they hate us?"

"I wish I knew. Also, that song you did-did you write it?"

"Yeah, I did."

Travis picks up the song he just sang to and handed it over to Jojo and he looked at it. The lyrics of the song definitely connected to Travis' angst and somewhat anguish-like. He looked at him and asked, "That's how you feel?"

"Towards our stepdad. There was one night that he was mad at me for being bullied and he bullied me too, by punching me in the face, kicking me in the shin and everything. I ended up with a black eye, bloody nose and a scratch on my arm."

Jojo covered his mouth in shock and he couldn't believe that it actually happened to him. He asked, "Is that true?"

"Yep. After that happened, I had to clean myself up and wrote the song while I was crying, because back in Whereville at our house after our mom got killed, there was no love in the house that we used to have before our real dad passed away."

"That touched my heart. I'm sorry you had to go through something like that. I actually came over to see if you or Jonah are okay." Jojo said.

"I think I'll be okay, but I can't stomach another minute of feeling Paul's presence."

Jojo nodded his head and left Travis' room to check on Jonah. He looked back and said, "Hope you'll be okay, Travis."

"I'll try."

He left the room and then, sees Jonah in his bed, crying. He enters and said, "Jonah?"

Jonah slowly turns around and his eyes were red and puffy, because he'd been crying a lot. Jojo looked at him and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Somewhat." Jonah answered, tearfully.

"What's wrong?"

Jonah sighed and said, "I looked back on my bulling in Whereville High and it's the worst thing I ever had to deal with."

Jojo puts his hand on his shoulder and said, "I've been bullied too."

"The worst thing they said to me was 'go kill myself'. It's like they don't want me to exist here. It just bruised me hard."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Jonah came to Jojo and hugged him tightly as Jonah cried on his shoulder. Jojo sighed heavily, knowing that Jonah has been through a lot and that bullying problems from Whereville still haunt him a lot and also dealing with his stepfather made him realize that they shouldn't live like this. Jojo told him, "Everything's gonna be okay. I promise."

Jonah wiped his eyes a little and looked at Jojo's eyes and said, "You sure?"

"Of course. You're my best friend and so's Travis and the others."

Jonah sniffled and said, "You're a good friend."

"Hopefully, there's something we can do."

Jojo walked away and then, turned back and said, "See you tomorrow."

"Bye."

"See ya."

* * *

Jojo's a good friend and shared with Travis about being bullied. It happens to everyone, though. The song was "No Love" from Simple Plan. Kinda relates to my new OC characters, right? Stay tuned for more!


	17. Concerns

Thought it'd be a good idea for Ned and Sally to show some concerns for the boys. And the idea sets in...

* * *

Chapter 17: Concerns

Ned was sitting in the quietness of the living room, feeling completely anxious about the situation between Jonah and his brothers being beaten by their stepfather. That kind of stuff really shattered him when he saw Paul acting out in a violent way and taking it out on his sons. He couldn't imagine doing those things to Jojo and his 96 daughters. Those boys live in constant fear with their stepfather and it really didn't sit well with him. He didn't know what he should do about it, so he just sat there, his hands hiding his face and just groaning in frustration.

"Honey?"

Ned didn't turn around as he heard Sally's voice from behind him. She, too was concerned as well. She sat down next to him and she asked, "You okay, honey?"

Ned sighed heavily and said, "I don't know, Sally. It's just-the thought of those boys being hurt by their stepfather has been bothering me. I never shouldn't have hired that man from City Hall."

"Well, I couldn't stop thinking of them either. Seeing Jonah's face bruised and almost not breathing...I just thought, 'what kind of environment are these kids living in?' They shouldn't be safe with him."

"I know. I don't think it's safe for them, either. I just don't know what I'm gonna do, Sal."

Sally thought about something and said, "Think they'll be better off with another family?"

Ned turned to her and asked, "Anyone we know?"

"Well, there's Ms. Yelp."

"Nah. She couldn't handle dealing with five boys. She's already dealt with six of them and the oldest one gets on her nerves easily."

"Good point."

"Well, how about...Dr. LaRue?"

"You think Dr. LaRue would make a guardian of these kids?"

"I don't know. She might."

Little did they know, Jojo started to overhear everything they're saying and he's concerned about his new friends as well and hopes that he can do anything to help them. Meanwhile, Sally just thought of something completely ideal. She turns to her husband and asked, "Ned, this might sound a little crazy, but...what about us?"

"Us? And by us, you mean..."

Sally smiled and said, "We can take them in here."

Hearing this made Jojo's heart skip a beat just a little. Ned was kinda unsure about it and said, "Here? I don't know, Sal. We've got a house full of 96 girls and one son. Having five boys? I'm not so sure about it."

"Come in, Ned. You know Jojo are great friends to them and with being an only boy and all, it wouldn't hurt to have five extra boys to adopt."

Ned sighed heavily and didn't know what to think of that idea. On one hand, he's already dealing with handling 97 kids of his own and the house is extremely bigger, but on the other hand, they've always wanted to have a bigger family, hoping to reach the 100 mark. He covered his face and just tried desperately to think this through.

"I know it'll be good for them, Ned. Besides, they're not safe with Paul."

Ned quickly turns to her and asked, "How'd you figure?"

"Well, I bumped into him one time while I was out grocery shopping and he looked at me with this weird look in my face, but he seemed like a strange person. When he asked me if I had kids, I told him I had 97 of them, 96 girls and one son. When he looked at Jojo's picture, he groaned in disgust and said, 'Why would you give birth to that homewrecker?' I didn't say anything, so he left. It was a bizzare thing, not to mention disgusting. I didn't have a clue what his problem was, until now. When I saw Jonah's face beaten up when he came here unconscious, I had a gut feeling that he wasn't safe in his home as well as the others."

"I don't know what I'm gonna do, though."

"Let's just give it a try. See how they'll adapt to here. It'll be good for them." she said, as she held her husband's hands.

Ned knew that it was a hard decision and so sudden, but he knew the boys wasn't gonna be safe, because if they stay long enough until they're 18 or 19, their emotional and physical scars would never heal and their stepfather would continue to give them fear and harm. He looked at Sally and said, "It might be a good experience. I'm still not sure about it, but for the sake of these kids...I'm willing to give it a shot."

Sally smiled and said, "This is one of the reasons why I chose to marry you, because you have such a kind and gentle heart."

She kissed him on the forehead and Ned giggled a little bit. He said, "Well, I always put others before myself."

"Thanks, dad."

Suddenly, Ned and Sally turned around and there was Jojo, standing there, looking extremely excited. Sally chuckled and said, "How long were you standing here?"

"I actually overheard the conversation as soon as I got back home." Jojo said.

"Well, how would you feel about having five of your friends as your new brothers?" asked Ned.

"I would like it. I told them that if there's anything they need, they should come to us anytime."

"That's the sign of being a good friend, Jojo."

"I can't wait until this is happening."

"We have to find some adoption papers, though."

"Good idea. But, what are we gonna do about Paul?"

"What are we gonna do about him?"

* * *

Yes, what are they going to do about Paul? Sorry I had to make this short. You'll find out later!


	18. Adoption Plans

Tell me this is the best chapter ever!

* * *

Chapter 18: Adoption Plans

A few days later, Ned was thinking about taking Jonah, Hawk, Cyrus, Sam and Travis in the McDodd household and adopt them there. He's hoping that they'll be in a much safer, calm and happier household. Ned made a good decision to fire Paul from City Hall after witnessing beating up his stepsons...twice. He suddenly got a call from Sally on the phone as he picks up and said, "Hello?"

"Hey, honey. I may have found the solution to adopt them." Sally said.

"You did? How?"

"A social worker."

Ned froze for a bit and asked, "A social worker?"

"Yes. One of my friends from college is actually a social worker and I told her the story of these boys and she was gonna help bring them in for adoption."

"I don't think we can afford a social worker, Sal."

"Well, she said it won't cost much. She's gonna do everything we can to help these boys out."

Ned sighed heavily that Sally hired a social worker to help out with the adoption process, but he realized that he's doing this for the sake of the kids, because they don't want them to be scared and live in fear forever. He took a deep breath and said, "Okay. I'll give this social worker a shot."

"Thanks, Neddie."

A few hours later, Sally came home with her old college friend, who's a social worker, dark brown and light brown striped fur, wears a trenchcoat, a blue and purple dress, a little taller, brown eyes, has dark black hair and wears a gold earring, coming in the house. Sally sat down with Ned as the social worker sat down and she introduced her to him.

"This is my husband, Ned McDodd. Ned, this is Andrea Harmond."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Harmond."

"Nice meeting you as well. You know, Sally has told me a few things about you."

"Like what?"

"You're the mayor of Whoville."

"Yes, indeedy I am."

"And then, she said you both have 97 children."

"Yes, that's right."

"Are they all adopted or birth?"

"Birth." they both answered.

"Perfect. Well, tell me about those five boys."

"Well, there's Jonah, Sam, Cyrus, Hawk and Travis Mosley. They live across the street from us, about five and a half minutes from us."

"Are there any issues there?"

Ned clears his throat and said, "Their stepfather, Paul, constantly harms these kids. Emotionally, metally and physically, he abuses them and they live in constant fear because he wanted their 'respect' towards him."

"I see. How often does he harm them?"

"Everyday." Sally answered.

"Me and my son Jojo, dropped them off one night and as soon as we were about to head home, we heard some arguing and loud noises coming from behind and we wanted to see what it was and in our eyes, we saw these kids being harmed, beatings, bruises, throwing furniture at them, punches. It was horrible to actually see that."

Andrea took some notes to sort of keep in track of what they're saying. Then, she asked, "How old are they?'

"Well, the first two are twins and they're 15 and the others are triplets and they're 14."

"Names?"

"Jonah Mosley, Cyrus Mosley, Sam Mosley, Hawk Mosley and Travis Mosley."

"And you want to adopt them?"

"Yes, we do. Cause we wanted to have a bigger family, anyways." Sally said.

"What number were you planning on going to?"

"Probably about 105 or 110."

"That's a lot. Well, if you can just tell me where they live and I'll interview all five of them."

"How about we bring them here?" asked Ned.

"Bring them here, Ned?"

"Well, Jojo's taking them over to our house anyway for a little visit."

"Sounds like a great opportunity."

"Would you like anything, Ms. Harmond?"

"Yes, I would like some water, please."

"Of course."

He stands up and walks to the kitchen to get some water. As soon as he left, Andrea takes off her glasses and Sally asked, "So, how've you been, Andrea?"

"Pretty good, Sally. How'd you ever meet up with Ned?" asked Andrea.

"Well, we met in high school. He was a junior and I was a sophomore. There was something about him that I liked, but he seemed so weird. Plus, he makes me laugh at times."

"Who would've thought that my roomate ever ended up with a husband that could end up being mayor here? I always knew you could find someone this great."

"Anyways, thanks again for setting me up on that blind date to meet him again while I was in college. It seemed like the worst date, but it actually turned out great."

"Like I told you, you'll thank me for this."

Ned returned to the living room with a glass of water and he hands it over to Andrea. She grabs the glass and said, "Thank you."

"You're quite welcome."

As Ned sat down, he looks at Andrea's brown eyes and in a strange way, he seemed familiarized. He asked, "Not to be rude or anything, but have I seen you before?"

"Whoville University?"

Then, Ned was surprised and asked, "Drea?"

"It's An-drea now."

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"

"I see you haven't changed a bit. How've you been?"

"Great. I can still remember that blind date you set up with me while we were in college."

"Well, I wanted you guys to reunite again."

"There was something special between us, right?"

"Yeah, there is."

"So, what's with having 97 kids? Seems as though you seemed very busy lately."

"We wanted a big family and now we have a bigger family-to adopt, of course."

Then, the door opens and in comes Jojo and the rest-Jonah, Cyrus, Sam, Travis and Hawk- in the house. As soon as they came in, Ned called out his name and Jojo comes in the living room along with them. He asked, "What's up, dad?"

"Jojo, this is Ms. Andrea Harmond. Andrea, this is our son, Jojo."

He looks at her and said, "Nice to meet you."

"The same to you. Are you the only boy?"

"Pretty much. I have 96 sisters, so I'm the oldest."

"And these are-"

"That's Jonah, Travis, Sam, Hawk and Cyrus Mosley."

"Great! They're just the five I need to see."

"What for?" asked Jonah.

"Well, Mr. and Mrs. McDodd came up with an idea that they should take you in their house to live with them."

They all froze and most of them were surprised at this. Jonah looked at Jojo and said, "Your parents are gonna...take us in?"

"Well, yeah. This means we could be brothers."

Jonah chuckled and said, "I have no idea what to say."

"Well, I'm gonna have to interview you five, though. If that's all right with you."

"Definitely."

Jonah was up first to interview them as Andrea asks some questions for him. She asks, "What's your whole name?"

"Jonah Patrick Mosley."

"And how old are you?"

"15."

"How long have you lived in Whoville?"

"A week. We just moved in from Whereville."

"Do you live with anyone?"

"Just me and my brothers and our stepfather, Paul."

"Do you have any parents?"

"Both my mom and dad are dead."

"Sorry to hear that. Reasons?"

"My dad died of a heart attack and my mom was killed by our stepfather."

"How long ago?"

"My dad died when I was 9 or 10 and our mom died when I was almost 11. It was terrifying. Being able to witness it is horrible, even when you're a kid."

"How often does your stepdad beat you?"

"Everyday. It started when my mom was dating him when we were younger, but it turned sour and violent. There were fights every night and sometimes, I would be scared to go to sleep at night, because I was afraid that Paul would come in and hurt me. When she broke up with him, he didn't take it well and she couldn't stand getting abused and us getting abused as well. After they got married, the abuse continues and...it ended up with my mom being shot by our stepdad. We actually witnessed it and it was horrible and terrible. After that, he took out all his anger on all of us. We were the victims of his 'stress reliever'."

"Whas was your fear?"

"Being killed by him. We all were terrified of him and we tried to respect him, but in his case, it wasn't good enough. Then, he pressured me into doing sports when I know I have no need to, because I want to do music and songwriting."

"How often do you write?"

"Everytime I get mad, depressed, sad and stuff. It just gives me a way to let out all my feelings on paper instead of screaming."

"Were you scared if anything happened to you?"

"Yeah, I was scared of him, as also my brothers. I was scared if something bad happened to me and I was also scared for my brothers. I'm the oldest and I wanted to look out for them as much as I can."

Then, it was Cyrus' turn to take the stand. Andrea asked him, "What's your full name?"

"Jacob Cyrus Mosley. I like to keep 'Cyrus', because I don't like the name 'Jacob' so I decided to use 'Cyrus'. My brothers like to call me 'Cyrus' all the time." Cyrus replied.

"How often are you friends with Jojo?"

"We've been very good friends since we moved in here the past week. We go to school together and that's pretty much it."

"What's your age?"

"15."

"If you were adopted here, how would you and your brothers feel?"

"Happy, because living with Paul is a total nightmare for all of us. We've been through this road for a number of years. The road of abuse."

"Does he abuse you?"

"Mostly. Only when he takes it out on us. I see him take it out on Jonah and it scares me."

"What kind of things he would do to harm you?"

"Crowbar, furniture, his hands-whatever he could use. Push and shove us to the wall and throw us across the room further as he could."

"Do you feel hate towards him?"

"Everyday. Huge hate. We hated being abused by him. And I think Travis has had a fear of Paul and he was scared for Jonah, because in a strange way, he relies on him a lot, because he's the sensitive one of the triplets."

"How do you deal with it?"

"We just let it all out...without Paul seeing it. We just let it out in private."

Sam was up next for the interview. He sits down and Andrea asked him, "What's your full name?"

"Samuel Curtis Mosley. My brothers call me 'Sam', 'Sammy' or 'Samson', but mostly, 'Sam'."

"How old are you?"

"14."

"How close are you to your brothers?"

"Very close, but of course. You get a little bit of sibling rivalry at some times. But, when we're around Paul, we're in constant fear and we just try to respect him, because he can sense fear from a mile away."

"How does he sense it?"

"Our emotions. When he sees us being scared, he just yells at us and slaps our faces so hard."

"Do you ever wish you can stop it?"

"At times I would, but if I do, then he would be totally mad at us after dealing with a tough day. I'm not so sure what's the cause of it was anyway."

"What do you do when this happens?"

"I hide in my room, cry a few times and also write songs about it. It just helps to let it all out."

"Was it hard to see your brothers take a beating?"

"Definitely hard. Jonah was the one he takes out his anger on, him and sometimes Travis. I was not only scared for Jonah, but for Travis as well. Travis is the youngest of the triplets and somewhat the 'baby' of the bunch."

"If you were a father, would you break the cycle?"

"Yeah, I would. I would never do the same thing to my kids or stepkids the same way Paul did it to us. I don't want them to be afraid of me."

Hawk was up next to take part of the interview as he sat down. Andrea looks at him and asked, "Nervous?"

"Kinda."

"Full name, please."

"Daniel Hawk Mosley. My mom gave me the middle name when I was born, and as I got older, I decided to use my middle name rather than my first name and my brothers call me 'Hawk' and it stuck."

"What's the story behind that name?"

"My mom said I have eyes like a hawk."

"Fair enough. What was your impression of Paul when you first saw him?"

"Well, Paul was kinda tough and somewhat like a scary dude, like he wants a piece of us."

"Explain that, please."

"I can tell by the look from his eyes like he wants us to be scared of him. And he can sense fear from us kids and he wants us to swallow it, but looking at him, it's kinda hard to do that."

"Did you know that it was a bad idea to have him as a stepfather?"

"I was so young, but I had a gut feeling that he might harm us, intentionally. But as soon as they got married, that fear definitely came true. There was arguing, fights, screaming every night while we were sleeping. I was the one waking up to that every night and it just scared me to death. And at that point, I knew from there that having him as my mom's boyfriend was a bad idea from the start."

"Does he disapprove of you?"

"Our personalities he definitely disapprove. We're not trying to be someone we're not. We're just being oursevles, cause it's all we are."

"How old are you?"

"14."

"Are you musically involved?"

"My mom used to teach us guitar and piano when we were young, I think about 5 or 6. And we also learned how to write songs when we were about 11, I guess. It's a good way to release your inner frustrations, sorrow and sadness by song."

"How does it feel, your songwriting?"

"Makes us feel better after that. It's better than keeping it bottling up inside for a short time."

Finally, Travis was the last one to do the interview as he sits down on the chair. He seemed kinda nervous and Andrea asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm a little frightened right now." Travis replied.

"Don't be scared. Full name, please?"

Travis gulped hard and replied, "Travis Ryan Mosley."

"How old are you?"

"14."

"And you're the last born of the family."

"Yeah and also the third of the triplets. It's kinda weird, but it helps, anyway."

"So, you're the sensitive of the bunch?"

"Yes. Very much so."

"How do you feel towards Paul?"

"Scared. Like something bad might happen to all of us, especially me."

"Why?"

"Like I'm afraid that I might not live to see tomorrow."

"How does your personality affects everyone else?"

"My brothers were kinda used to it, but my stepfather...not so much. He would often verbally abuse, threaten me with serious harm, and physically hurt me. It's like a wound that's in my heart what won't be healed."

"Do you often put in a brave face?"

"Not really. I'm basically a loner, an outcast."

"Do you feel a sense of protection between your brothers?"

"Jonah. I always look up to him and he's like the best brother I ever had in my life and often times, I would be so scared for him when Paul takes out his anger on him. Whenever I hear Jonah scream and see Paul take him down, I just feel so afraid that he might kill him. I would scream, but Paul would beat me up if I did."

Travis' eyes were filled with tears and he tried to wipe them away, because it was all too much for him to take. He looked up at Andrea and said, "Sorry."

"It's okay." she whispered.

"You know, since the tragedy between losing both my mom and dad, I grew into a very deep part of depression and I grieve over this every single day. When I see their faces, I would just break down in tears, curl myself in a little ball and just let it out."

"So, you're a lonely person?"

"Well, sometimes. But yeah. I can get lonely sometimes when I'm alone. I've been dealt with being an outcast in school and stuff. It was hard to deal with moving on when my parents died and all I got is my abusive stepfather and there were days when I thought why is he in our lives, anyway and 'why are we stuck with him?'. And making new friends is sometimes harder to do, because I'm used to loneliness and they wouldn't want a dark cloud like me for a friend."

"Do you get bullied often?"

"Yeah, me and my brothers get bullied back in Whereville. In middle school, I was an 'emo' freak, because I look and dress and act like one, when I'm only being myself. I've had some 14-year old girls make fun of me and say that I could just 'kill myself'. You have no idea how hard it is to actually hear that and to have them call you a 'loser', 'nobody', 'piece of crap' and throw you in a trash heap."

"Do you tell anyone about it?"

"I remember going to Paul one time to vent about it, but he just shoved me away. I was crying and he didn't want to hear about it. So, he just slapped me in the face and kicked me out of the room. I ended up sulking in my room and just crying. It was the only way I can deal with it on my own, so I kept it to myself, cause I knew that nobody would care."

"What would happen if you and your brothers would actually live here?"

"I think it would be a great thing, because it's been a heavy burden for all of us, so to live in a safe environment like this would mean a lot to us."

"You're one of the most sensitive people I've known."

"Yeah, I am."

Shortly after, Ned, Sally and Jojo went in the living room with Andrea as she went out of the door and she said, "Thank you for letting me come here."

"You're welcome. So, what do we do? I mean, how long are we gonna hear from you?" Ned asked.

"Not too long. As soon as I print up the adoption papers later this week, I'll keep you posted."

"Thanks."

"Nice meeting you again. Take care of yourself."

"You too."

She turned her attention on Jojo and said, "It was nice meeting you."

"Nice to meet you, too." Jojo said.

Then, she looked at the boys and said, "You guys were amazing with my questions and I hope things will go smoothly for you."

"We hope so." Jonah said.

When she walked out, Jonah and the others were starting to head for home. Jonah turned to Jojo and said, "See you in school tomorrow."

"Bye, guys."

They walked out of the McDodd house, feeling a sense of hope that they'll get away from Paul and get into the McDodd house where they can bea part of a huge family.

* * *

Looks like this is gonna be cool. You know who's not gonna be cool about it? You guessed it, Paul. The reaction...until next chapter!


	19. Taking In

This will be the extremely intense chapters ever! vampire1031, you'll receive a surprise guest here...

* * *

Chapter 19: Taking In

A couple of days has passed by and Jojo was anxiously waiting to see if Jonah, Sam, Hawk, Cyrus and Travis are adopted. He's hoping that they enter into their place and become a family. He looked out the window in his room, just looking outside. He sighed heavily as he looked at the clouds rolling by and the quietness of the room has set in. A knock on the door comes along and he turns around to see his dad there. He asked, "You okay, son?"

"Just anxious." he answered.

"So am I."

He comes in the room and sits down on his bed, just gathering his thoughts together. Jojo could see through his worry as he sits down next to him as well. Ned looks at Jojo and asked, "Do you think I'm cut out for this?"

"Cut out for what?"

"Taking your friends in and being a part of their family."

"Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't you be?"

"I mean...I've never been an adopted father before. I've been a father to you and your sisters for a number of years. It seems so much easier."

"You're gonna do fine, dad. Trust me."

"Are you sure?"

"I've never been much sure of anything. I'm definitely looking forward to having them as my brothers."

"I know you are. You're a good kid."

Ned pats Jojo's shoulder as he got up from his bed and walked out of the door. Ned stops for a while, sighs heavily and asked, "What are we gonna do about Paul, Jojo?"

"I was gonna ask you the same question."

A couple of hours later, the phone rings and Ned comes down to get it. He picks it up and said, "Hello, McDodd residence."

"Is this Ned McDodd?"

"Yes, it is."

"Hey, this is Andrea."

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Pretty good."

"What can I do for you?"

"Well, I came to the boys' house earlier today to interview their stepfather-Paul, right?-and this guy was completely livid when I told him that we're planning on taking his stepsons to your place."

"Oh no. What did he do?"

"He just yelled at me, cussed at me and saying, 'Why would my stupid brats do anything with these people?' I was trying to calm him down, but he was doing the same thing to me as he did to his kids. So I figured that these kids were right. It's not safe there. I'm actually gonna print out those adoption forms to you and send it to you real soon."

"Oh, I'm really sorry that Paul would do something like that to you."

"I know, right? It's like he wants to start a fight with me."

"Well, listen. I appreciate you bringing in those forms to us. It means a lot to us."

"You're very welcome. How's Sally?"

"She's doing fine."

"Well, tell her I'm bring the forms first thing tomorrow."

"Okay, I will. Thanks."

"Bye. Have a good day too."

"You too."

"I hope so. After what Paul did to me, he's lucky I didn't fight back."

"Okay."

They both hung up and Ned was a little relieved that she's bringing in the adoption papers to them tomorrow. And hearing that Paul lost his top on Andrea made him realize that these boys don't need him anymore.

Later on, Sally came downstairs and asked, "Who was that on the phone, Ned?"

"It was Andrea."

"What did she say?"

"She's bringing in the adoptions papers tomorrow."

"Oh, that's good."

"Also, she told me that she was doing an interview with Paul and it ended up with him being really livid and slammed her down hard."

Sally gasped in shock and said, "I can't believe she would do something like that."

"I know. What's that guy's problem, anyway?"

"I don't know why, but I think I'm gonna find out myself."

"Wait, you might need me for this, because I've got some choice words for him that I've hidden for a number of years."

Both Sally and Ned went over to the Mosley house and as soon as they got there, they saw Travis dangling in the tree branches. Ned gasped in shock and said, "Travis!"

Travis looked down and saw both Ned and Sally there and he tried to talk, but his mouth was wrapped with duct tape. Sally brought in a ladder as she climed up there and gently took the tape off his mouth. He took a deep breath and panted heavily and said, "Thanks."

"How long were you on that tree?"

"2 hours."

"2 hours? Paul did this, right?"

"Yep."

Sally untied the ropes off of Travis and set him free. She got him down on the ladder and set him down back on the ground. Travis was totally overjoyed over this and said, "Thanks for getting me down."

"You're welcome."

Ned came in and asked, "Why would Paul do something like that?"

"He found out that I took the music class with Jonah and wanted to 'teach me a lesson'."

"Unbelievable."

"And also about us being adopted by you guys. We really want to live with you guys, because I cannot take being here being mistreated by Paul."

"We understand. You're not gonna have to worry about it, because we'll take you and your brothers in our house as soon as possible."

"You mean it?"

"Of course we mean it." Sally said.

Travis started to smile and said, "Thanks."

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF TRAVIS!"

They all turned around and saw Paul standing there, looking totally livid. Ned looked at him and said, "Meet us at our house. Jojo's there."

"Stay!" Paul shouted.

"We can handle this. Head to our house."

Travis looked at Ned and sees that he's trying to keep him safe, then he looked at Paul, holding a baseball bat on his hand. Seeing that he was gonna be beaten by him, he's taking that risk and ran out of there and into their house. Paul was stammering, angrily and then looks at Ned and Sally and asked, "What did you do that for?"

"First of all, you put poor Travis on that tree branch, tied up for 2 hours, secondly, you had no right to harm our social worker and third, what is your problem, anyway? Why would you treat your stepsons like crap?" asked Ned.

"You ain't gonna take them in your home at all. What do you know about me, anyway?"

"Just one thing-you've been using those kids like they're your punching bags."

"Those kids. Is that all you can think about are 'those kids?' What about me? Do you know what it's like to have a kid that's different than you that they can't even do what you expect them to?"

"Big deal. Our son Jojo is a lot different from us. You don't see us beating the crap out of him."

"What made you so coldhearted and violent?" asked Sally.

"Lady, stay out of my business!"

"Don't talk to my wife like that! She just asked a question and we would appreciate it if you answered her question." Ned said, angrily.

Paul wanted to strangle their necks, but he just sighed heavily and wanted to answer that question. He said, "When I was 9, my stepfather was the worst one I ever had. He would use me, hurt me, and even threaten me at times. He sensed fear inside of me and would put me in the closet for a long time if he saw me breakdown and cry. At one point, I wanted to fight back and when some kids would bully me, I would start fights all the time at school and get in trouble with it. I didn't care at all. So my stepfather was the one who would beat me up and bring bodily harm on me. And one day...when I turned 12, I wanted the abuse to end, so I found a gun that was under my pillow-he gave it to me as a present-snuck in his room...and went out there and ended his freakin' life after what he's done to me for the past! And everytime I look at these brats and how they're afraid of me, I see his face."

Ned could not believe what he's hearing and neither did Sally after Paul told that story. He asked, "So your stepfather used to beat you up when you were younger?"

"Yeah, he did."

"So, you wanted to do the same thing to your stepsons as your stepdad did to you."

"Darn straight I am! I want to make their lives as miserable as I can and somehow, you're trying to take them away from me."

"Because they're not safe there! What possessed you to even think about doing some harm to your own stepsons?"

"Their mother. When I first saw them, they were like little emotional sissies! I can't raise no freakin' sissies who cry a lot and be scared! I hate the sensitivity they've been brought up! When I want to harm them, I want them to feel the pain that I've been feeling!"

"This is the many reasons why they're afraid of you-because you hate them." Sally said.

"Wow! You are smart!" Paul said, sarcastically.

"Are you calling my wife 'stupid'?" asked Ned.

"She has to be stupid enough to even marry you."

Sally was beginning to look extremely ticked and said, "Okay, listen here, buddy! If you think you're gonna talk about me like that, you've got another thing coming! And another thing...your stepsons told me that maybe having you as their stepfather was a stupid mistake."

"They're my stepkids and I'll handle them anyway I want to, just the way my stepfather handled me! And you won't do anything about it!"

"Mr. and Mrs. McDodd?"

Ned and Sally looked on the front door and it's Jonah, standing there. Paul turns around and said, "Get back to the house!"

"Where's Travis?"

"He's not coming back here!"

"Don't listen to him. He's in our house." Ned said.

"Is Jojo there?"

"Yes, he is." Sally said.

"If you go there, I will kill you."

Jonah started walking and he left the house, but as soon as he did, Paul shoved Jonah to the ground and started punching him in the face, throwing him around and continued bringing in all this abuse on him. Ned and Sally were horrified by what he's doing and also Cyrus, Sam and Hawk were standing there in shock. Ned looked at them and said, "Go into our house!"

"No!" Paul shouted.

Hawk, Cyrus and Sam decided to take Ned's word for it and ran anyway. Paul stopped them by bashing them in their head numerous times and Ned tried desperately to stop them, but he shoved him hard to the ground. Jonah got up slowly and saw Paul beating up his brothers and looked scared. Sally looked at him and said, "Go to our house."

Jonah nodded his head and started to run to the McDodd residence. Paul looks up and sees him run away and started to run after him. Hawk, Cyrus and Sam got up and followed Jonah. Paul looked behind and saw them running behind him. Jonah almost got there, but then Paul picked up his gun and fired at Jonah's arm. Jonah groaned in pain as he went down on the ground.

"NOOO!" Ned screamed.

Then, he looked at Sam, Cyrus and Hawk and began firing at them, but missed because they ran in different directions. All of a sudden, Paul followed them and started firing at them several times, hoping that they end up dead. Meanwhile, Jonah laid there in front of the McDodd house as he tried to get up, but he feels a pain in his arm. Sally ran to him and came to his aid. She asked, "Are you okay?"

Jonah groaned softly and said, "My arm hurts."

She looks at his arm and there's blood coming out of it. She carried him up and took him inside to care for him. Sally came upstairs and went into the bathroom and cleaned up his arm. Travis walked by and saw Jonah and he gasped in shock as he saw some blood coming out of his arm.

"What happened?"

"Your stepfather did it." Sally said.

Travis was totally afraid to see Jonah like this. He quivered his lip and asked, "Where are the others?"

"Your stepdad's after them. I hope Ned and the others are safe."

A few seconds later, Ned brought in Sam, Cyrus and Hawk into the house as he locked the doors to prevent Paul from coming in. They quickly ran upstairs and not a few seconds later, Paul burst in the front door with his gun to kill all of five of his stepsons. He went upstairs and saw Travis standing in front of the bathroom. He fired one shot, but he got away afterwards. Jonah heard it and wanted to run for cover with his brothers.

They all escaped the house and Jojo didn't know what's going on, so he followed them and then, he recognized Paul coming in from behind and ran out of there. He fired three shots at Jojo, but missed, cause he took off running out for the door.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Jojo.

"What do you think?" asked Hawk.

"I'll take that as a no."

Paul came out of the house with his gun drawn at them and said, "You're making the biggest mistake of your life for living with them! If I can't raise you, then nobody can!"

They closed their eyes and all of a sudden, he pulled the trigger and an unknown who steps in to step things as he ends up getting shot as well. He fell down to the ground and Paul was ticked that he didn't shoot them all. Jojo quickly ran to him and recognized his face. He gasped and said, "Koa?"

"What? No fair! You all should die!"

Suddenly, he tried to kill Jojo, but ended up punching him in the face and throwing him through the house and fell down on the ground and then, he drew his gun at Jojo and planned to kill them. Paul said, "This is for ever meeting my stepsons and being friends with them!"

"No, please don't kill Jojo!" Sally shouted.

"Shut up! He should've thought about that when he tried to be friends with them! They're miserable stupid brats and that's how they are!"

Then, he turned to Jojo and said, "Goodbye...forever!"

Koa started to move a little and grabbed a baseball bat and whacked him in the head with it several times and he punched him in the face. Paul fell down to the ground and laid there unconscious. Jojo turned around and saw Koa limping towards him.

"Koa? Is that you?"

Koa fell down on the ground and groaned in agony. He looked at Jojo and said, "Yep, this is me."

Jojo was totally excited to see him again as he hugged his old friend. He said, "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Well, I'm here, am I?"

Minutes later, the police came and puts Paul in handcuffs and took him away from there. A few police officers came in and asked Jonah some questions. One asked, "How long has he been abusing you?"

"Since we were kids."

"What I don't know is that why couldn't anyone report it to us?"

"We're new here and that if we did, Paul would kill us, anyway."

"Well, you don't have to worry about it anymore. He won't be bothering you anymore. We've got a warrant for his arrest for assault and child abuse. It's a good thing your brothers called us when they did."

"I know."

"Do you have any parents?"

"Both my mom and my real dad are dead."

"Sorry to hear that, son. Anyone you know that can take you in?"

Sally looked at Jonah and then, went to him and told the police officer, "We'll take him and his brothers in."

"We just need to some adoption forms."

"We'll look at those when you receive them and then you call us."

"Will do."

"Okay, you people have a good night. And if I were you, I'd take them inside now."

The police left there and Ned looked at Jonah and his brothers and they all went inside the house. Koa grunts as he tried to head home by himself, which made Sally stop and turn around.

"Hey, wait a minute!"

Koa stopped and said, "I got to get home."

"I just wanted to say thank you for saving our lives, Koa."

"Hey, no big deal."

Sally looked at his leg and said, "You're not planning on going home with an injured leg, are you?"

"Sorta."

"Maybe you can stay with us until your leg feels better."

"Maybe, but what about Mana?"

"Maybe Mana can stay here with you too."

A few minutes later, Mana comes in the house to see Koa and when he entered Jojo's room, he asked, "Koa, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Koa answered.

"Oh, I saw the entire thing from the window. I thought you were done for."

"Nah, they're friends of Jojo."

Jojo comes in and sees both Mana and Koa there. He chuckled and said, "How long have you been here?"

"Just got here. How you've been, Jojo?" asked Mana.

"Fine."

"Your parents said I can stay here until my leg heals." Koa said.

"And you're staying too?"

"Yeah, sure."

"It'll be great."

"By the way, you gotta meet my friends; Jonah, Sam, Cyrus, Hawk and Travis. Guys, these are my friends Koa and Mana."

"Nice to meet you guys." Mana said.

"You too." Jonah said.

"Thanks for saving us. It means a lot." Travis said.

"Your stepfather's mean, isn't he?"

"Really mean and violent."

"Yeah, I can tell when I stepped in save you guys and ended up with an injured leg by that gunshot, but it's all right though." Koa said.

"I think we're all gonna get along just fine."

* * *

Hey, vampire1031, hope you like this one! The boys are getting close to adoption. Will they be living in the McDodd house? Stay tuned to find out!


	20. Full Custody

This is it...the moment we've been waiting for...

* * *

Chapter 20: Full Custody

As the next few days dragged on, the adoption case needed to be finalized and to settle that is in court. Jojo, Ned, Sally, Jonah, Sam, Hawk, Cyrus and Travis went on one side of the court and they became exceedingly nervous, mainly Travis. He was trembling a little bit and asked Ned, "Why are we in court?"

"Well, we've signed the adoption forms and we're just waiting until they give us approval." Ned answered.

Travis was still nervous already and even that answer almost helped him, but it didn't sink in. He sighed heavily and laid back on the seat, looking terrified. A couple of minutes later, the bailiff comes up and said, "All rise!"

Everyone stood up and the bailiff presented, "May we now present Judge A. Conroy."

The judge comes in the judge seat and pounded his gavel as he took a seat and everyone else sat down. The judge said, "The case?"

"Mosley v. McDodd." the bailiff said.

The judge could recognize that last name and when he looked at Ned, he said, "Seriously?"

"Yes, your honor."

"All right, what's this about?"

"The case about five boys being mistreated by their stepfather and the McDodd's want to take them in."

"Is McDodd the stepfather?"

"No, that's not McDodd."

"Oh, good. Well, we will let this case go as follows."

Then, two police officers came by and brung in Paul. The judge groaned in disgust and said, "I should've known. Paul Roscoe Stewart."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's me. What do ya want from me, judge?" Paul scowled.

"I've already heard of you a million times. Haven't you got your parole officer on tow?"

"I just came out of jail for this court date."

"So, I'm assuming this is the stepfather, young man?"

He looked at Jonah and said, "Yes, sir."

"Okay, then. This should be easy. Paul Stewart-it seems as though you've got several famous records. Busted by drug use, selling drugs, first-degree assualt, second-degree assault, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon, third-degree assault, gunshot wound to the shoulder, conspiracy to commit murder, first degree homicide and now there's a new charge that's been added most recently-child abuse. Isn't that a big surprise?"

"What does that prove anything? They're just stupid mistakes." Paul said.

"But this one, out of one Ned McDodd, is not a mistake. It may be stupid, but it's not a mistake. May we get Mr. Ned McDodd on the stand, please?"

Ned got up and went to the seat near the judgment seat and asked, "Now how did you became aware of this person abusing these kids?"

"It was when me and my son, Jojo took them home after having dinner in our house. As soon as we left, we heard loud noises coming from there. We wanted to see what's happening there and before I could even notice, he comes in and screams at these boys and then it grew worse. He starts beating, lunging and throwing these kids in the house. I could look in their eyes and see that they're definitely afraid of him."

"And what made you want to get involved with them?"

"It was all my wife's idea. She wanted to take them in with us after seeing Jonah almost losing air, because his stepfather lunged at him and grabbed his neck hard."

"I see. Thank you, Mr. McDodd."

Ned went back and sat back down with the others and Paul stood up and say, "Can I just say one thing, your honor? The only reason I choked him was because he took music class over physical education. I wanted him in sports, because it makes him tough, but Jonah-this brat couldn't even beat out the opposing team. When he took that stupid music class, I wanted to kill him so bad."

"Now that I believe." the judge said.

"I would've, though. He just blantantly disrespected me for taking music class."

"I did not disrespect you. I just like music better than sports."

"You are a lying little snot-nosed, backstabbing snake!"

The entire audience booed him in the entire courtroom and Paul shouted, "Why don't ya put a sock in it?"

The judge banged the gavel three times and shouted, "Order! Order in the court!"

The room grew silence and the judge sighed heavily as he takes a drink of water. After that, he said, "Have you brung in your first witness?'

Ned stood up and said, "My son, Jojo."

Jojo stood up and the judge said, "Please address the court."

Jojo cleared his throat and said, "Well, when I first met them, I figured they'd be cool and whatnot, but when I saw their scars for the first time, I kinda figured something must be wrong there, like bruises, beatings and stuff. I was aware that they were victims of abuse and when I actually saw it unfold, I knew from there that this was possible that their stepfather had been attempting to harm them."

"So, what made you want to help them out?"

"Cause they're my best friends, soon to be brothers, and when I see them at their lowest moments, I just come in and give them a little light out of this dark hole they're in. I think Jonah is one great example of being an awesome friend and the same with his brothers, because they have each other and I was the only one to help them out of their situation."

"Spoken like a true friend."

Paul stands up and said, "They mean everything to me, too!"

In the background, Cody and Mike started to boo first as well as the spectators, because they didn't believe in that story. They knew that he was a cold-hearted child harmer. He turned to the audience and screamed, "OH, DO SHUT UP!"

The judge pounded the gavel 10 times and ordered silence. The judge said, "All right. Enough out of you, Stewart!"

"You're not the boss of me!"

"I am the judge and if I plan to put you in jail, then so be it."

Then, Cody, Mike, Marcus, Caitlyn and Misty stood up in different seats of the courtroom and went over to the McDodd's side. The judge asked, "Who are they?"

"That's the young McDodd's friends, your honor." the bailiff replied.

"Well, that's fine. Give me your full names, one at a time, please."

"Cody Austin McKinney."

"Mike Russell McKinney."

"Misty Janice Kirkpatrick."

"Caitlyn Hailey Fanning."

"All righty. How would you find the boys' stepfather?"

"Guilty as charged! Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty! How does he live with himself, beating down these poor boys? He should be in jail for life! What kind of a stepfather are you?" asked Misty.

"Is she always like this?" asked the judge.

"Nah, she's usually crazy." Mike said.

"What does that mean?"

"That's how you are!"

"Can I call all the five of the brothers to stand before me, please?"

The boys stood up and walked in front of the judge and he said, "Give me your full names, please."

"Jonah Patrick Mosley."

"Jacob Cyrus Mosley."

"Samuel Curtis Mosley."

"Daniel Hawk Mosley."

Travis started trembling a little bit and the judge looked at him and asked, "A little shy, aren't we?"

"Kinda."

"It's okay. Just give us your name."

Travis gulped silently and said, "Okay. Travis Ryan Mosley."

"Who's the oldest?"

"I am." Jonah said.

Jonah walked in the bench and the judge asked, "So, what has your stepfather do to you?"

"Makes my life miserable, say that I'm a no-good, beatdown loser, throws furniture at me, beats me down constantly, punches me, shoves me, throws me across the room, shoves me up against the wall, tries to choke me. He's the real reason why I wake up every morning, looking afraid."

"At one point does he make you afraid?"

"I don't really know. I don't know how he's like this at all."

"I do." Ned said.

"Go ahead, Mr. Mayor."

Ned cleared his throat and said, "Just found out yesterday that the reason why Paul is like this is because his stepfather did the same thing to him as he did to his stepsons. He killed his father with a gun when he was 12, because he wanted the abuse to stop. And he told me and my wife that whenever he looks at them, he sees his stepfather. And he's been doing the same thing to them like his own stepfather."

All the boys felt completely shocked and appalled about this. Jonah said, "You never told us that story."

"Cause I wanted to make your lives as miserable as possible, just as my stepfather did to me!"

"Now I get why you're so ticked. You hate your stepkids."

Paul was looking livid and said, "Yeah, so what! I should've ended their stupid lives a long time ago, just like I did to their mother! Those kids were the most miserable kids that I've ever raised and I'm glad their mother died, otherwise I would've killed them if I had the chance."

"Listen to yourself, dude! You're letting this happen again and you're blaming it all on your sons? Are you freakin' serious?" asked Marcus.

"You are a sick, sick dude!" Misty said.

"Want me to kill you, you little pest?"

"That's enough! We're about to ask you this question anyway, because you've been convicted of aggravated assault and conspiracy to murder a minor. Do you find yourself guilty or not guilty?"

"NOT GUILTY!"

"Liar! He should be guilty!" Caitlyn said.

"You shut your mouth!"

"Both of you shut your mouths. Now Jonah, tell me, if you made one wish, what would it be?"

"Live with the McDodds." Jonah answered.

"Bad choice!" Paul shouted.

"And why?"

"Cause they're nice people and their son is an awesome friend."

"I see. Can you bring Travis up here, please?"

As Jonah went back down, Travis was nervous as well and Jonah said, "It's gonna be okay. He's just gonna ask you questions, all right?"

Travis was nervous to even sit next to the judge and the judge said, "Don't be afraid."

He slowly sat down on the seat and asked, "How often does your stepfather take it out on you?"

"He-he doesn't take it out on me much, but somedays he does. I see him taking it out on Jonah a lot and it scares me more than anything. I was afraid that he was gonna die and that I would lose my brother. He's like the closest thing to a brother and father that I've ever had."

"And how does it make you feel when you or Jonah gets beaten by your stepfather?"

"It makes me feel sad, lonely, scared, hurt, hopeless, helpless and depressed all at the same time, because it feels like my heart is ripping out of my chest and I couldn't live to see another day. I'm scared for my brother and the others, because I was so scared to know if there's a repeat of that scenario again, just like Paul killed our mom."

The judge looked at Jonah and asked, "Can you tell me how your brother became so scared?"

"Well, it started when our mom met Paul and he looked into his eyes, and sensed that he was a mean dude. I think, one night, while he was sleeping, he heard arguments, fights, screaming in the living room back in Whereville and he saw that he beats down mom and over the next few visits, he would take his anger out on us for no reason or for little things. When they got married, his fears increased and he was scared that he was gonna die and he saw our mom being killed by him. It was traumatizing for him and he was only eight or nine. He's pretty much sensitive about everything and he has some trust issues, like making new friends, because he's lonely. It's not an act he's playing on, this is how he is. He would often get nightmares every night about what if Paul kills him or something. He's pretty much of Paul as we are, but he's also afraid for us, because we're the only ones he ever had." Jonah explained.

The judge looked at Travis and said, "Is that true?"

Travis slowly held his head down and nodded as a 'yes'. The judge touched his chin and lifted up his face and there's tears rolling down there. He then said, "I'm pretty sure you have a big heart."

"I care for my brothers a lot." Travis said, tearfully.

"And they care about you too."

Travis nodded his head again and he said, "Can I go now?"

"Sure."

As Travis went back down to his seat, he looked at Paul and said, "How could you be such a heartless person to these kids?"

"What do you care, anyway? Those little punks are nothing but good-for-nothing stupid pieces of crap!"

"You do realize that you're gonna be confined in comtempt of court?"

"You do realize that you're fat, ugly and stupid?"

The audience gasped in exclamation and Cody said, "Oh, no he did-n't."

"He just went there." Marcus said.

The judge pounded his gavel a million times and said, "You're off the case. And I'm gonna say you'll have zero custody of the kids."

"WHAT? You can't do that to me!"

"Yes, I can!"

He looked at Jojo and said, "This...is all your fault!"

He picks up the gun from his pocket and fires at him, but he missed. The guards stopped it for once, but then, he slammed them down and comes running after Jojo in the courtroom and fledged into a full-beatdown. He started punching him, shoving him, smacking him and everything. Jonah tried to stop it, but he pushed him out of the way and he lunged at his throat and then, before he could squeeze it, Mike steps in and pulls Jojo out of there and the guards stopped him. Mike looks at Jojo and said, "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Thank you for saving him, Mike." Ned said.

"You're welcome."

The judge pounded his gavel and said, "In all my years in the courtrooms, I have never seen something like this! Now, has the jury reached a verdict?"

"We, the jury, in the above entitled case find the defendent-Paul Roscoe Stewart-guilty of abusing a child, attempting to murder a minor, assaulting teenagers and also to killing the mother of the five children several years ago."

"You will be spending life in prison without parole and all custody of your stepkids goes to Ned and Sally McDodd. Case closed."

The gavel pounds and Paul wasn't happy about it. He tried to break free of them, but the guards took him away.

"You can't do this! Those kids are mine! I was having fun making them miserable! I would've killed them if I wanted to! I will come back for you!"

"As a matter of fact, forget prison. I sentence him to death by electric chair."

"WHAT?"

The gavel pounds again and asked, "The electric chair? You can't do this to me! I've only got one life to live!"

"Take him to the chair!" Mike shouted.

"Get out of here!"

The judge sighed heavily and said, "Well, boys. You've got your new family now."

Jonah, Sam, Cyrus, Hawk and Travis looked at Ned and Sally and brought them with open arms and hugged them tightly. Ned told them, "Welcome to the family, boys."

"Better, welcome home." Jojo said.

"I'm so happy for you guys." Marcus said.

"So are we." Mike said.

"You know, I never actually thought this could happen. We've been moving here the past week and already we're out of this situation that we've been in for a long time. Now that we've got a new family, it's like everything's gonna be okay." Jonah said.

Travis was smiling for the first time and told Jojo, "It's gonna be the best time of my life being your brother. I've never felt so happy before."

"Neither have I."

Jojo hugged Travis and Jonah, Hawk, Cyrus and Sam came in with the hug as well. Travis whispered, "We are so going home."

"Our new home."

* * *

You knew that they might be living with the McDodd's, right? Well, I knew it too. And here's the awesome ending for this story!


	21. Big Family

And we wrap up this story with a happy ending.

* * *

Chapter 21: Big Family

Shortly after the court, the boys went back to their place and brought in all of their belongings and sent them to the McDodd house. Jojo helped bring in Jonah's stuff and they sent it upstairs towards a guest room. Jojo brought in a box and it was a very medium sized box. He asked, "What's in this box?"

"CD's." Jonah answered.

"Great explanation." he answered, in a strained voice.

Travis, Hawk and Cyrus brought in the rest of their belongings to the guest room as well. Cyrus sighed and said, "Well, I brought in most of my stuff."

Jojo looked at the box and sees that there's a full array of notebooks and pencils in there. He looked at him and asked, "Really?"

"Well, I might need some songwriting juice in order to get settled here."

Jojo chuckled and said, "If you say so."

"Hey, Travis. What have you got in your box?" asked Koa, as he came by the room.

"Just my clothes and some notebooks." Travis answered.

"May I even ask?"

"Well, I have to make room for those."

"Good thing."

Sam and Ned brought in the piano into the room and Ned was starting to grow exhausted. He panted heavily and asked, "Where can we put this?"

"How about on the wall for now?" asked Sam.

"Good choice." Ned said, in a strained voice.

They set the keyboard in the wall and Mana brought in some of the boys' laptops and computers and then, Cody and Marcus came in and brought in a microphone, stool, boxes with clothes, blankets, sheets, video camera, books and Misty helped Mike bring in parts of their beds and set them on the floor.

Sally and Caitlyn brought in the mattresses out of the moving truck and into the guest room as well. Koa and Jojo went all the way downstairs to bring some more stuff out of the moving truck as well. Koa asked, "So, these guys seem nice, don't they?"

"They're pretty much sensitive. After everything that's been happening the past couple of days, I can't imagine them actually moving in with us." Jojo said.

"Well, hey. At least your dad will be used to mave more boys."

"On the upside, I'll still feel like the only boy, even if it's growing."

Travis comes out with Cody and helps grabs some guitars. They both picked up some guitar cases with the guitars in them. Cody asked, "You guys are guitar junkies, right?"

"We live for playing guitar. It sorta helps out with the songwriting and such. The piano does the same thing, too." Travis said.

"You're a surprising dude, Trav."

Mana, Mike and Jonah brought in some more stuff and the others pitched in as well as they settle up setting up the rest of the room as well. They were assembling the beds, unpacking everything in their boxes and set them in their own places, put up their posters in the walls, hooked up the computers, making the beds, clean up a little and before they knew it, it was suddenly a room.

They all looked at it and smiles were filled in the air as they completed it. Ned chuckled and asked, "So, what do you guys think of this room?"

"It actually looks and feels like an actual room, a room that all of us can go to, even if we share our space and all." Jonah said.

"And the best thing about it is we're next door to Jojo's room." Travis said.

"Well, if you guys ever need anything, just come find me. If not, come find mom and dad." Jojo said.

"We will."

A few hours later, everyone gathered around the kitchen-Ned, Sally, Jojo, Jonah, Cyrus, Sam, Hawk, Travis, Mike, Cody, Marcus, Misty, Caitlyn, Koa, Mana and all of Jojo's 96 sisters-to welcome the five Mosley boys in their own home and Jojo was totally excited about it. Ned cleared his throat and said, "We have gathered here today to welcome Jonah, Cyrus, Travis, Hawk and Sam to the McDodd family. We took them in after they dealt with some bad hands with their stepfather for a number of years and we'll provide with love, respect and also feel like they belong here."

"Boys, can you handle all 96 sisters?" asked Sally.

Jonah looked at all of Jojo's sisters and saw their faces for the second time in a row, but this one is a little different that they're actually living here. He chuckled and said, "I hope you guys like me."

Hedy looks at Jonah and gives her a huge hug and said, "Me love Jonah!"

Jonah looks into Hedy's eyes and sees those big blue eyes staring at him and Jonah smiled at her and embraced the hug as well. He said, "Jonah loves Hedy too."

Then, she looks at the rest and gives them a hug as well. They hugged her back and they feel the love as well. Travis looked at all of the other 95 sisters and said, "I hope you guys like me."

"We will."

"We'll treat you the same way as we treat Jojo."

"As long as our daddy doesn't hog all the attention."

"You girls don't have to worry about that, because I will always have time for you all." Ned smiled.

They looked at Jojo and said, "Welcome to the family, you guys."

Everyone cheered and applauded in joy and the Mosley brothers definitely feel like they're really gonna be happy there. Misty gave all of them a huge hug and said, "You guys will be so happy here."

"Don't hog the hugs, Misty." Mike said.

"It's just a welcome!"

"I am so happy for you guys."

"As are we." Hawk said.

"Hopefully, we'll make trips here frequently and just totally hang out and let it rock." Cody said.

"Not too hard, though." Koa said.

"By the way, this is Koa and Mana. Mana, Koa; these are my best friends: Misty, Caitlyn, Cody, Mike and Marcus." Jojo said.

"Nice to meet you." Mana said.

"Same here." Marcus said.

"Where are you guys from?" asked Misty.

"Who-waii."

"Oh, I so want to go there. It has the most beautiful sights of the world."

"In that case, why don't you fall in a volcano?" asked Mike.

"Sure, and I might drag you there with me."

"I'm not that crazy."

"What happened to your leg, Koa?" asked Caitlyn.

"Paul shot it when he tried to kill them. I wanted to step in, because I've seen them pass by the hallway at school several times."

"That dude is totally psychotic."

"Hopefully, this will all be behind us." Jonah said.

"What do you think they're gonna do to Paul, anyway?" asked Ned.

Travis scoffed and said, "Who cares? As long as he's out of our lives, that's good enough for me."

"That lowlife will get what he deserves. Electric chair, totally awesome." Misty said.

"Should we in anyway feel bad that he might be dead from an electtic chair?" asked Marcus.

"No, we should not." Hawk replied.

"You're right. He deserves it."

"I'm sure that we will adjust to new life here and be happy again."

"You guys will, because you're now part of our family." Sally said, happily.

Everyone started hugging each other, each of them felt a sight of relief that things are gonna be okay. The boys definitely feel like they got a place where they literally belong in that loving atmosphere and that Paul is out of their lives for good. Everyone went around the table and started talking as they have dinner together, a bigger family this time.

* * *

A/N: I know what you're all thinking? What happened to Paul? Well, here it is...

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Whoville prison, some police guards were dragging Paul to the room where they have the electric chair waiting for him. Paul wanted to get out of this one, but the guards knew that there was no escape from this and slammed him to the chair anyway.

"You people are crazy! You can't do this to me! It is not legal!" Paul shouted.

"Child abuse, murdering the boys' mother and trying to inflict bodily harm and attempted aren't legal, either. Besides, we've been hunting you down for a long time."

Paul was trembling and said, "No, please. You can't do this! Do you want to lose your job?"

"No, this is part of my job and I'm having fun with it."

"Are you crazy?"

"Nope. Your life is now going to end, so I'm starting the thing."

"No...no...NOOOOOOOO!"

The police officer pulls the switch as the electric chair shocks Paul and he starts screaming in uncontrollable pain. The shocks were getting into him and he lost the will to live. After 2 minutes, he turned off the switch and Paul is totally dead from inflicting shocks while sitting in the electric chair. The officer looks at him and keeps eating his candy bar. He keeps munching at it and said, "Delicious. Well, that's a wrap."

He left the room with Paul's lifeless body still sitting on the electric chair and at that point, he didn't deserve the will to live and deserved the punishment that has been brought for mistreating his stepsons.

* * *

**THE END**

That wraps up this amazing story! vampire1031, hope you like this one! And thanks for the reviews! See ya'll laterz! -A.U. '05


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